Chapter VII: Buchans: Company Town in Transition  (continued)

Yet all the flurry of community improvements only emphasized the people's dependence upon the company. No amount of facilities could mask Buchans' basic problem: it was a closed company town from which the only means of exit was the company railway. Many grievances left unresolved by the 1941 strike resulted from this fact; and because they remained unresolved they surfaced again more violently in later strikes.

The most obvious grievance involved the practical aspects of everyday life. As all incoming goods had to pass over the railway, price-fixing sometimes occurred among town stores. Medical services suffered, for few doctors cared to remain longer than a year in the mining town. Worst of all was the housing situation. Had miners been allowed to build their own homes and establish a sense of permanence in Buchans, they might have felt the drawbacks of isolation less intensely. Unfortunately, the company adopted a 'no private dwellings' policy that forced men to live either in badly maintained company houses or, more often, in vermin-infested bunkhouses. The low rental charged for both dwelling types could not alleviate the demoralizing predicament of one's employer being one's landlord.

Added to the tangible grievances were the intangible elements that characterize most closed company towns. So much did ASARCO deliberately dominate Buchans that the people unconsciously felt its presence in every waking moment. Just knowing that the company could, if it desired, deny a man the right to leave town placed upon Buchans residents subtle psychological pressures that could only be imagined by those on the outside.

When, in 1956, the long-awaited road out of town finally came through from Badger, a flame of independence was fanned that continued throughout the 1960s. In 1956 a miner, fed up with the housing shortage, moved his family across the Buchans river to just beyond the company boundaries and built his own home. Others followed him until by 1960 sixty families inhabited what locals called "Pigeon Inlet".⁽²⁴⁾ Though the offshoot settlement was short-lived (in 1963 the lack of essential services obliged Pigeon Inleters to relocate closer to Buchans and to form another settlement called the "Townsite"), it represented the miners' initial step toward lessening their dependence upon the company.

ASARCO sensed the temper of the town and accelerated its community improvement program in the 1960s in the hopes of mollifying labour unrest. The 1960s did indeed appear to be relatively happy and prosperous times. Yet appearances can be deceptive. The miners had sublimated too many grievances to be truly content; and in 1971 Buchans' flickering flame of independence flared up into a major strike.