Miners 1830's

Miners in Colorado, Idaho and Nevada were mostly from Cornwall in Great Britain. They were Cornish and were Celts like the Irish, Bretons and Welsh. They were called “cousin Jacks” as in “me cousin Jack” needs a job. Cornish lead miners in the 1830’s in Wisconsin were called badgers, thus Wisconsin is called the “Badger State? Some believed that the spirits of departed miners, called “Tommyknockers”, who died in the mines would warn miners of danger.
(Source: “Me Cousin Jack” by Robert Joe Stout in Wild West magazine Feb 2001)