In the late nineteenth century, hard-rock miners uncovered vast quantities of silver and gold by hand. Then, drills that ran on steam-powered compressed air revolutionized the industry. The old-time miners, however, were proud of their skills and competed in hand-drilling contests long after their outdated tools were no longer used underground.

For the contests, miners took turns either "single jacking" (one man) or double jacking (2 men) on large granite boulders. Several of these events took place at Chautauqua, and one of the drilling rocks (with a brass plaque and visible drill holes) is to the left of the park's entrance road near its intersection with the road that exits the Chautauqua Green.