Pub. 6 2016 Issue 3

8 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY M ining and Thanksgiving? How could there possi- bly be a connection between the two, you might ask? Thanksgiving is a great American tradition, bringing together family and friends to express gratitude for the blessings of life. This Thanksgiving, take a moment to think about what it takes to provide our lifestyle and standard of living. You guessed it: it takes mining. It even takes mining to make our Thanksgiving celebration possible. The first American Thanksgiving was in 1621 when 90 Wampanoag Indians—also known as the Massasoit—and the 52 colonists who lived in Plymouth colony sat down to enjoy a three-day autumn feast together. To appreciate the story of the colonists, you need to understand some of their background. The colonists had started their Atlantic crossing on September 20, 1620 on a boat called the Mayflower because they wanted a return to the practices of the early Christian church. They arrived in New England on November 11, 1620 and made it to Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620. Why did the colonists think it was so important to leave England? It was a dangerous time in England to be advocating any kind of religious reform that expressed criticism towards the Church of England: Elizabeth I had died only a few years earlier in 1603, and her father, Henry VIII, had broken the monarchy’s ties with the Catholic Church when he wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry the second of his six wives, Anne Boleyn, instead. By the 1600s, people who lived in England only had one religious option—the Church of England. Those who disagreed suffered from harassment, fines, and sometimes jail. (It could have been worse. Religious disagreements a generation or so earlier had meant the possibility of being tortured and killed.) The colonists who settled in Plymouth were Separatists who wanted to “separate” themselves from the Church of England because they thought it couldn’t be reformed. They decided to move from England to the Netherlands, first in Amsterdam and then, for 11 or 12 years, in Leiden. As they settled down and began working, they realized that their children were going to lose their English identity if they stayed. They also realized that the Dutch and the Spanish were likely to start a war soon, and they didn’t want to be involved. They decided to leave the Netherlands, go back to England temporarily, and come to America instead. Although the original plan involved traveling on two ships— the Speedwell and the Mayflower— the Speedwell began leaking water during two MINING AND THANKSGIVING