Edward Tomany

Edward Tomany was born in Tonopah in 1945 and spent his childhood both there and in Silver Peak, where his father worked as a miner. Growing up he heard many stories of the dangers of mining. At the time of the interview, Tomany served as the Chief Administrative Officer, Mine Inspector for the Nevada Mine Safety and Training section. Tomany was interviewed by Victoria Ford in 1996.

I am the chief administrative officer of the Mine Safety and Training Section, which oversees mine inspections for the state of Nevada. Our agency was created by the legislature in the state of Nevada in 1909. I’m pretty proud of that when we look at the relationships between state and local governments and federal governments. Our state agency, which was created by legislature in 1909 to oversee health and safety of the miners, was an integral part of the history of Nevada through the Comstock Lode and Tonopah and Goldfield and now today the Carlin gold belt and all. And I think Nevadans can be proud to think that this state undertook that process for the health and safety of their miners in 1909—something that never came about [federally] until the Congressional Mine Act of 1977. So we had some 68 years of experience before the federal government chose to influence health and safety of miners in metal/nonmetal mining in this end of the nation, so I think that’s good. I’m not one for the federal government maintaining anything. I think it should all be on a local level.