| Fred Civish browses through his newly published book, The Sunnyside War. Civish captured stories told by family and community members about the mining lifestyle in full swing at Sunnyside in the early 1900s. |
Carbon County is a community known for its vast mining history. The city of Sunnyside has added its fair share of memories to the long chapter of this history over the years.
Local author, Fred Civish has captured some of these memories in his book, The Sunnyside War.
Civish was born in Sunnyside in 1931 and grew up with the people who he writes about in his novel.
His first published work was an article in The Grapevine, a magazine for alcoholic anonymous when he was in the tenth grade.
The article was about one of Civish’s uncles who is also mentioned in his most recent work.
From 1962 until 1967, Civish was a full-time free-lance writer and photographer for various trade journals.
A lifelong interest in telling the mining story began when Civish was a child growing up in Sunnyside and hearing many of the stories from the workers who went on strike, including his father, grandfather and four uncles.
Civish says that his only regret is that he did not pay more attention to these family members and write down what they had to say.
One of the stories which Civish wrote about in his book was about a rock shed which was located on a mountain in the small mining town which was rumored to contain a machine gun nest. The shed which was built over 80 years ago by Italian immigrant rock masons and can still be seen in it’s original location.
The book is based upon stories such as this one and includes few fictional characters and the events are also real.
“I’ve always loved two things,” stated Civish, “history and a good story. We learn a lot about submarines in Clancy’s Hunt for Red October but I doubt millions would have read it if it weren’t for the story.”
According to Civish, readers will learn fascinating things about mining, big business and the early labor strike in his book, but the story of the people of Sunnyside will touch the readers the most.
The book is currently available through Bonneville books and the official public release date is scheduled for May 1.
Civish will also conduct a book signing at Walton Books on Friday and copies of his work will be available for purchase.