Crawford, Bill

spent 50 years of his live devoted to mining in the north part of Ottawa county Oklahoma. Crawford started working in the mines by shoveling 60 tons of ore for a $1.00 a cart. His fondest memory of those 50 years of working in the mines, and one that still brings tears to his eyes, was around the Central Mill between Commerce Oklahoma and Cardin Oklahoma where he worked. He said, "We had a chat pile out there that had 15 million tons of chat in it. I helped put it all there, then helped haul all that chat off again and loaded it up for Frisco Railroad." In his 50 years, Crawford spent two and a half years underground and also ran shovels, drags, bulldozers, was a welder and just about everything associated with mining. He started at the Central Mill in 1946 and stayed until 1980. . .