The word “miner” has various meanings. The two main meanings are the following: a miner may either be a person removing landmines (this is some very dangerous task, usually soldiers are trained to work as miners), or a person working in a mine, digging tunnels and extracting precious stones and metals.

Working as a miner is very dangerous. Not only might the person have an accident anytime because of gases and collapses, but dust particles may cause serious diseases as well. Moreover, kids often worked as miners. Their height enabled them to go more easily through narrow tunnels. Women didn't make it past this hard work either. In order to “facilitate” underground work, horses and donkeys were sent down the mines. Miners used them to pull chariots full of dirt, metals and stones. Most of these animals, once underground, never saw the daylight again.

Mines exist ever since Prehistory. But, according to the time and the needs, people dug the land looking for various minerals, stones, metals.
The most glorious period for miners was without a doubt the gold rush in the United-States. Men from all walks of life and social classes came to California looking for the precious metal.
Towns were built so as to shelter those men. Most of them have been abandoned, and there are no less than 250 ghost towns in the State of California alone.