SeeCalifornia.com

Every year, more than 700 mules compete for stardom at the famous Bishop Mule Days. But few mules will ever gain the fame of one named, “Mary Jane Simpson.”

By Craig MacDonald

Mary Jane, and many of her four-legged co-workers, never saw the light of the sun, moon or stars or any other light except the miners’ flickering candles and lamps. For 18 months, the amiable creature did not see a single blue sky or hear any of the sounds from the outside world.

Named Mary Jane Simpson after a popular writer of the day, the like-able animal worked on the surface and way down under (1,000 feet below) in the Belcher Mine. For many months, in the bowels of the earth, she pulled cars full of glittering silver ore over a rail from the mine to the main shaft of the Yellow Jacket, where it was hoisted to the surface. Read the story about this famous Gold Rush mule…>

This week the world’s largest producer of the metal, Codelco, announced machines are taking over at its Chilean copper mine, replacing about a third of the workforce with underground conveyor belts to transport the mineral. Machines have replaced 1,700 human workers in this instance, while mules once did the mining work that humans weren’t able to do.

Calico Days in September at California’s silver rush ghost town (Calico Ghost Town in Yermo,) commemorates Calico’s mining past with events such as a Burro Race. Burros (small donkeys) have also been employed as pack animals, while mules that are generally larger than donkeys, make better pack animals due to their body weight.

Mules are the offspring of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare).