Fun and fireworks: Fourth of July at the American gold mines in Korea

The champions of the 1916 series.

• Published Jul 7, 2018 9:41 AM KST
• Updated Jul 8, 2018 9:48 AM KST

By Robert Neff

The Fourth of July is one of the most popular holidays in the United States and is celebrated with bright decorations, picnics, good food and, at night, spectacular firework shows.

It might surprise you to know that the Fourth of July was also celebrated by the large American community in Korea in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The largest celebrations were probably held on the American gold mining concession at Unsan in northern Korea. Anecdotal history claims that the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company (OCMC) ceased mining operations for only one day ― July 4.

There is no doubt that this date was honored by the company. Everything revolved around it. The company's first steam locomotive was even built on a Sunday that happened to be July 4 ― days that would normally be rest days in the conservative United States.

The OCMC honored the United States' independence with a two or three-day celebration filled with dinners, picnics, firework displays and sporting events for the miners (Western and Koreans) and their families.

Events for the Koreans were: 100-yard dash for boys, 100-yard dash for men, bicycle race, greased pig chase, greased pole climb, sack race, donkey race, egg race, wheel-barrow race, macaroni-eating contest, pillow fights, wrestling bouts, boxing for boys, and the somewhat ominous and ambiguous “string eating contest.” Judging from a home movie, these events were well attended and thoroughly enjoyed by the spectators.

The events for the Western miners were: the running high jump; standing broad jump; running broad jump; the hop, skip and jump; the shot put; the 100-yard dash, bicycle races and a tennis tournament. The contrast between the slim Koreans and the robust (to be kind) Westerners is amusing, especially in the races.

But, by far, the most popular Fourth of July game was baseball ― America's sport. The earliest known baseball games in Korea occurred in the mid-1890s in Seoul. They were quite entertaining but, as the games were mainly between the American Legation guards and the small American community, the sport did not become popular until the early 1900s.

Apparently, the OCMC developed its own American baseball championship series but was only opened to the miners and not the general foreign population. Occasionally, however, teams from Pyongyang and even China were invited to play but, because of the great distance they had to travel and the rough roads, the visitors were at a great disadvantage.

The championship series were well-spirited, with a great deal of good natured teasing between the two mining teams ― the outside team, and the inside team, so named because of their locations within the mining community. The Fourth of July Program for 1916 gives us an example of this playful banter between the two teams:

“AS THE 'OUTSIDE' SEES IT”

Names unlike faces do not change with defeat it seems, as is

common with Northern Chosen Baseball teams.

One is “Outside” the other called “Inside.”

And the “Outside” twice been on Win-side

While the Lose-side with “Inside” name still beams.

“ECHOS FROM THE INSIDE”

The “Outside” has been crowing,

O'er the winning of the cup,

O'er the great baseball they're playing,

And the way they've showed us up,

But let me tell your people,

It wasn't playing, wasn't luck,

The way they've won the last two years,

To Maibong took the cup,

The “Outside” looked things over,

Figured ― as things stood they'd lose,

So they began to “holler,”

More men, they wished to choose,

So the “Inside,” noble-hearted,

Says “of course, take three or four,

We don't dare take advantage,

You won't play and will get sore,”

So give them all the men they want,

It won't do us much harm,

For this is now the third time,

They say, “THE THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM”

Although it isn't clear, circumstantial evidence (mainly pictures) indicates that the “Inside Team” eventually won in 1916. Things might not have been so easy if Fred Johnson, a young man from Indiana working at Taeyudong (the French mining concession just north of Unsan), had been invited to play.

Johnson was a former clerk at a hotel in Columbia City, who was also “the right fielder and catcher on the famous professional Columbia City Reds baseball team and the Columbia City-Fort Wayne Shamrocks [team],” before coming to Korea to work as a mining supervisor.