In the Galena Mining District, miners often lived in poorly built, drafty company boarding houses with leaky roofs near the mines. At the Ute, Ulay, and Hidden Treasure Mines, tensions rose when the Auric Mining Company required all single men and men without families to live in the company boarding house and pay exorbitant rates. On March 14, 1899, nearly one hundred members of the Henson Miners' Union, mainly Italians, refused and began a lock-down strike in the mines. At the same time, the State Armory in Lake City was found to have been broken into, and stolen rifles and ammunition were believed to be in the hands of the strikers. Sheriff James Deck met with the miners in an effort to avert violence, but when negotiations failed he requested state militia aid from Governor Charles Thomas. Thomas sent four companies of National Guard troops from Denver and Pueblo, and the troops and the Italian Ambassador arrived in Lake City on March 16, 1899. Realizing they did not have a chance, the strikers quickly ended the strike. Part of the settlement with the union illegally required Italians to leave Hinsdale County, with single men given one week and men with families six weeks, ending the only major labor dispute in the Galena Mining District.