The Legendary Life of Scott Turner
A Flin Flon man who knew a president and survived a shipwreck
Scott Turner was born on July 31, 1880 and from a young age he developed an interest in mines and minerals, something he inherited from his father. That interest included a love of the outdoors, which would serve him well through his life. Looking for adventure, but also a strong career, he earned a degree in Liberal Arts and a major in Geology.
He began his career in mining in Tombstone, Arizona, and built a concentrating and cyaniding mill in that community. Thanks to his experience and education, mine owners talked to him about engineering problems. Wanting more creditability, he went back to school to earn an engineering degree. By the time he had his degree, he was already working in many of the major mines in the western United States. He then moved on to Panama, Alaska, Yukon, North Africa, England, Spain and Spitsbergen.
Due to his expertise, he started to work with the United States government to negotiate their interests in mining.
As a mine manager, he put a focus on improving the lives of his workers. This meant giving them better food and shelter, and also developing safety procedures around explosives, safety lamps and mine ventilation.
He became the first person to direct commercial coal mining in the Arctic Circle, and also was hired to conduct negotiations to sell Arctic coal mines to the Czar of Russia. As part of that work, he had to sail across the Atlantic to Russia on the Lusitania.
As many know, that voyage ended on May 7, 1915 when a German U-Boat torpedoed the Lusitania, killing 1,959 men, women and children. Since there were 123 Americans on board, it brought the United States into the First World War.
Turner survived but the delay in getting to Russia meant that by the time he arrived in Moscow, the Czar had fled amid the Russian Revolution.
After the war, Turner returned to Canada to serve as the consulting engineer for Mining Corporation of Canada. He spent seven years with the corporation, which brought him to Flin Flon. He described the community at the time as “only a piece of moose-pasture” but the mine and the community was developed based on his recommendations. The Flin Flon of yesteryear and today owes a lot to Turner and his guidance.
By the summer of 1925, his time in Flin Flon had come to an end and Turner began a new job working with a man named Herbert Hoover. This was a good connection to have as Hoover became the President of the United States a few years later.
Hoover appointed him as the Director of the United States Bureau of Mines. His job was to manage eleven Bureau of Mine Experiment Stations, bringing the mining industry up to modern standards in the United States.
His work in mining earned him the Hoover Medal in 1957 for excellence in his field and in 1967 he was presented with the Award of Merit from the American Institute of Consulting Engineers. He passed away one day before his 92 birthday on July 30, 1972.