Gallows Frame

The Gallows Frame or Headframe is the structural frame, usually made of steel or timber, at the top of an underground mine shaft.

A Headframe is also known as a winding tower, pit head or poppet head. The name "poppet head" is probably related to the word "puppet"; both involve something suspended by a cord or rope and controlled from above.

These frames are the fulcrum over which the cables from the hoisting equipment connect to the skips and cages which raise and lower equipment and miners into, and the ore and waste rock out of, an underground mine.

Some suggest that the term "Gallows Frame" comes from the structure's resemblance to a hanging gallows. Others say the term reflects the potentially lethal attributes of underground mining. They are also known as headframes, hoist frames, tipples, or, in Butte, Montana, gallus frames.

Butte contains about one dozen historically significant frames from its copper mining heyday. These include, the Anselmo, the Orphan Girl (pictured at right), the Travona, the Original, the Steward, the Lexington, the Mountain Con, the Kelley, the Belmont, the Bell, the Granite Mountain, and the Badger.

When the headframe is enclosed, as as the Quincy Mine, it is sometimes referred to as a "shafthouse". Shafthouses may be built for ventilation or to protect the shaft and machinery from the weather.

References

Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)"A Pictorial Walk Through the 20th Century"http://www.msha.gov/century/colliery/colliery.asp

Butte Silver-Bow Chamber of Commerce. "Gallows Frames" http://www.butteinfo.org/butte/gallows.html