Dewey Tippett Underground Iron Mining Oral History Interview Transcript

This interview transcript is one of several on underground iron mining conducted by researcher Mary Tippett Andes for her book "The Last Generation Underground." Dewey Tippett (1921-2011) was born in Ishpeming, MI to Walter Tippett and Marian Bengry. He served in the US Navy during World War II. After the war, he worked for the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company at the Mather A Mine, the Mather B Mine, and Empire Mine. The interviewer, Mary Tippett Andes, is his daughter. (External source of biographical information: Dewey B. Tippett Obituary, https://www.bjorkandzhulkie.com/obituary/1336926) Tippett describes the life of an Upper Peninsula miner in the 1950s. The interview is conducted by his daughter. She asks him to define different mining terms such as drifting, sublevel caving, lagging, dog drifts, caging, timbering, contract mining, and more. Much of the interview is Dewey discussing his jobs as a dispatcher and a timbering supervisor and describing his responsibilities for each of his jobs.