Anonymous thousands of miners, whose only monuments were often the waste dumps in the mountains, mined the silver and lead ores found there with great effort and ingenuity while also establishing the community of Park City. A mining engineer examining a piece of rock cored from the earth by a diamond drill reflects the hope that another bonanza might be discovered, since such drills could extract ore from over 1,000 feet away. Jim Ivers (1914-2000), a mining engineer who modeled for the sculpture, began humbly in the mining industry and in 1928, as a 14-year-old, drove a horse-drawn wagon to Thaynes Canyon delivering supplies to remote operations. Like his father and grandfather before him, he worked in the Park City mines, pursued his interest by earning two degrees in Mining Engineering from Columbia University, returned to work in the Silver King, worked in other mining camps, and later came back to Park City as President and General Manager of United Park City Mines Co. In the 1960's he also shared responsibility for directing the mining company's new ski area, now called Park City Mountain Resort. Park City was once well known for a great silver mining bonanza and is now world famous for its skiing.