A student injured his back last Friday jumping off a 50-foot ledge at the abandoned copper mines, a popular but dangerous swimming hole in South Strafford, Vt. that is described as the "premier spot to hit on a hot day" in the Green Pages guide to the Dartmouth area.
Various accidents at the copper mines have resulted in injuries and even the 1991 drowning death of a 19-year-old Hanover resident two years ago.
Jake Hooker '95 damaged his vertebrae after hitting the water at an angle instead of vertically. The fall against the water's surface caused an impression fracture on his lower back.
Hooker, who is now on crutches, said he was lucky that his injury was not more severe. "The only reason I'm on crutches is because it helps take the pressure off my back," he said. "And I have to stay away from anything that can put in me danger, like fall on my back, for six to eight weeks."
Located off a dirt road through thickly wooded terrain, the copper mines are a vast network of cavernous shafts which extend deep beneath rust-colored turf.
Two open cuts at the copper mines are the most frequently visited. One cut used for swimming is more than 1,000 feet long and 100 feet wide. The Green Pages says the ledges overlooking the cuts are as high as 70 feet.
Hooker said he had been at the copper mines once before the visit last week. He said the first time he was there he jumped off cliffs approximately 25 feet above the water.
"It's a lot of fun and it's a great place to swim especially since it's hot ... You just should be wary of the danger of jumping off cliffs too high," Hooker said.
The copper mines are private property and off-limits to the public. Dartmouth students and other area youngsters often disregard posted warnings against trespassing.
Hooker said he was not worried when he jumped because seven of his Psi Upsilon fraternity brothers jumped from the same 50-foot ledge before him and one even jumped after him.
Asked why he jumped from such a high altitude, Hooker said, "For the thrills, I guess. It's a great feeling to get out of the water."
The copper mines belong to Strafford resident Dick Jossler who said youths continuously trespass onto his property despite signs and fences he set up.
"The mine is not a recreational area available to the public," Jossler said in an interview last year. "With all the 'No Trespassing' signs, fences and road impediments I put up, you think people get the message but they don't."
The copper mines were shut down around 1957, and since then the property has not been safeguarded for swimmers or other recreational users, Jossler said.
In the last couple of years, the Upper Valley Ambulance Service responded to two emergencies at the copper mines, one of which involved the drowning accident of Nathan Hall, the19-year-old Hanover resident.
The other incident involved Andrew Awad '94 and Pete Thoenen, a resident of Strafford, who were rock climbing the mines in February 1991 but found themselves unable to climb out of a 300-foot deep pit..
Awad and Thoenen were not injured.
However, danger lurks even for occasional visitors. Many mine shafts were left uncovered when the mines closed, leaving 50-feet deep pits open to those unfamiliar with the area's geography.
Jossler said his efforts to warn people away from the mines limits his liability. "As long as I have posters up and have taken pictures of them, my lawyer says I'm fine," Jossler said.
However, the town is not as satisfied. "We want to make certain that Dartmouth students do not travel to the copper mines in South Strafford under the impression that it is a public recreation facility, which it is certainly not," Town Selectman of Strafford Stephen Willbanks said in a letter to The Dartmouth last year.
Bill Bush '92, former editor of the Green Pages, was informed last year of his publication's failure to say the mines are privately-owned when the copper mines' safety was called into question as students flocked to cool off in the swimming holes last summer but no change was made to the 1993 edition of the Green Pages.
