This article discusses the contributions of secret ritualistic societies to the social construction of mining communities and to nineteenth-century life in the United States in general. The role of secret societies in nineteenth-century American life has not been fully assessed. What attention they have received often overlooks their effect on associational life and volunteerism, including those in the mining community. This article points out the influence that Free masonry had upon much of American organizational life in the nineteenth century. The study of Masonic institutions thus may well be important to understanding American mining culture.
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