By the dim light of smoky oil lamps, miners worked long hours excavating coal under cramped and dangerous conditions in a drift mine that followed a horizontal seam deep into the hillside. Similar to the mine in the photograph, the Lusk coal mine was only 3 feet high, and miners supported its fragile sandstone ceiling with timbers as they dug out layers of coal. Small animals, including small donkeys, pulled coal-laden carts on rails to the mine entrance, where the coal was hoisted to the hilltop and loaded into wagons for transport along what is now Trail 8 to the Lusk home. The Lusk Mine operated during the late 1800s, and mining continued until the late 1920s. Too small for a commercial operation, it probably supplied coal for the Lusk family cookstove and later for use in the park.