Long gone in the Lake Superior copper district are the days when a pare would taper off with a fuggan or an oggy, and a bit from the miners jack at croust.

That is to say in Cornish dialect, a mining team would relax while eating a fruit-filled pastry or a pasty, and take a drink from their water pails while at lunch.

While the majority of the mining workforce was primarily Cornish, in the early years of mining, agents were usually American. It must have been trying at times for an American agent to discuss underground progress with a Cornish mining captain.

Even among the Cornish, dialect varied by region. In the western section of Cornwall for example, a food break was referred to as a mossel, whereas in the north, it was a crib, while in mid-Cornwall, a lunch break was a croust.

The Cornish did not use American measurement standards in mining. They did not measure in feet, but rather in fathoms, one fathom being equal to six feet or two yards. Similarly, fathom measurements were used in reference to water depth in nautical trades.

The Cornish were also very familiar with piskies, buccas, and knockers. These were the equivalent of Irish leprechauns in Cornish, Devon, and Welsh folklore and mythology.

Knockers were about two feet tall, and were quite grizzled, wore long beards and had hooked noses. They dressed in mining clothes, which included a tull, an old-style mining hat made of thick felt and hardened with resin to make it hard for better protection. Very mischievous in nature, knockers were usually responsible for stealing tools left carelessly about, and food. Who the knockers are is still debated in Cornwall. Some say they are the ghosts of people who were not bad enough to go to hell, but were not worthy of heaven. Others assert that they are the pre-Christian gods who were sprinkled with holy water, which caused them to shrink. Still others say they are the spirits of virtuous pagans.

The knockers were brought to the Lake Superior district from the Cornish tin mines, where not only men and boys worked, but also women and girls, something that was never permitted in the Lake mines. In Cornish dialect, a mine is called a bal. A female mine worker was referred to as a bal maiden. During croust, a portion of a miner’s lunch was reserved for the knockers. This was particularly in reference to a pasty’s crust crimp.

At lunch time, the bal maidens would shout down the mine shaft: “Oggy, oggy, oggy!” Miners in the levels below yelled up the shaft in reply, “Oi! Oi! Oi!” After eating, the pasty crimp was then thrown away for the knockers to eat, who lived in the lower levels, and deeper recesses of the mine. Knockers might appear to a miner he liked in the mine, but if one was seen outside the mine, it was a warning of certain death to come to the one who saw him.

It would probably be impossible to track a date when the knockers first entered the mines of Cornwall, Devon, and Wales, because mining in Cornwall dates back to the Bronze Age (2,200 – 1,400 BC), while the pasty does not appear in history until the medieval period, in the 13th century, when only the wealthy could afford them. Fillings varied. According to historical records, fillings could include lamb, pork, venison, or even eel, and flavored with rich gravies and fruits. In the 1700s, miners began adapting the pasty to their own income-level and use.

The crimp actually had a practical use as a handle while eating it in the Cornish tin mines. Ore in the tin mines contained arsenic. Holding a pasty by the crimp kept the meal clean, and tossing the contaminated crimp away might help in decreasing the rat population.

In the Lake Superior copper district, feeding the knockers was a good practice, particularly in the Quincy, Pewabic, Franklin, Concord, and Pontiac mines, which worked the Pewabic Lode. Like the tin lodes of Cornwall, Pewabic Lode copper contained arsenic. Arsenic, in fact, was common in Lake copper.

As the population of Cornish miners decreased, and those who remained became Americanized, the population of knockers also declined proportionately. Whether they continue to live in the now long-abandoned Lake copper mines is, of course, impossible to know, because no one enters those mines to check on the knockers or feed them.

It is most likely that the knockers are all gone, but the pasty remains, though not in the true Cornish style. The Copper Country pasty, like its Cornish ancestor, includes a crimp which, in consideration of the shortage of knackers, is best eaten.