It was in the latter half of the 19th Century that the Brokenwood Mine called it a day. The quality and quantity of coal mined from Brokenwood simply did not justify continued production. In the early 1920s rumours started spreading that a new vein of high quality coal had been discovered at this mine. Like so many rumours, it was unlikely this was fact, but one of the Ludvik brothers, "Black" Jack, thought it might be a good idea to check out the mine. So, one morning Jack, George and Hal Ludvik marched off to the mine with their custom-made picks and shovels. The tools had to be custom made since these three brothers were midgets. It wasn't the best of days: it was a hot day with sporadic downpours. George, the eldest of the three, had bad vision and found it difficult to do much "work," especially when it came to entering the dark mine. So, he took numerous "breaks" to smoke his pipe. Towards the end of the day, "Black" Jack, who had a notoriously bad temper, was simply fed up with George and was steaming with anger. As it happened, a local reporter and a part-time photographer went to the mine to see what sort of story they could use in the local rag. This photo was taken shorly before Jack and George had their confrontation. You can see Hal in the background, looking most worried because he knew how things could turn out. It took quite sometime for this photo to be taken since posing these three was a mighty task. So much time in fact, that the news people found it necessary to leave right after the photo shoot. Almost immediately after the reporter and photographer departed, Jack began yelling at George for being such a laggard, threatening George all the while with his pick. George explained his eye sight hampered him, and he had no desire to get killed by falling down some dark shaft in that mine. Jack kept yelling until Hal interceded to cool down the situation. Finally, after much huffing and puffing, the brothers decided to call it a day. Jack ran into the mine to collect his gear, but when it seemed it was taking Jack too long to return, George and Hal began to worry. Hal went into the mine and called out Jack's name. But no answer. The two brothers waited a bit longer, but decided it would be best to go home and gather a search party to find Jack. In the end, the story goes that Jack probably fell into a deep shaft and simply couldn't be found. Well, anyway, that's the story they all told, and few, if any, tears were shed for "Black" Jack. Research information and photograph kindly provided by the Brokenwood Historical Society. ========================= As always, thanks for the view and for any comments you'd like to share. Your support is greatly appreciated.