City Requests Logo Ideas to Help Re-introduce Tommyknockers to Platteville

No, we are not talking about the 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King titled “The Tommyknockers” in which an alien spacecraft excavated in London evokes latent psychic abilities in some of the people who come near it.

A Tommyknocker is a mythical human-like creature in Welsh, Cornish, and Devon folklore. It wears a tiny version of standard miner’s garb and commits random mischief, such as stealing miners’ unattended tools and food.

According to Cornish folklore, the name comes from the knocking on the mine walls that happens just
before cave-ins. To some miners, Tommyknockers were malevolent spirits, and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause a cave-in.  Others saw them as essentially well-meaning practical jokers whose knocking was a way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was about to occur. Some folklore suggests the knocking is the helpful warnings from spirits of miners who died in previous mining accidents. To give thanks for the warnings, and to avoid future peril, the miners cast the last bite of their pasties into the mines for the Tommyknockers.

As part of the City of Platteville’s strategic planning efforts to tell a better story of Platteville’s history, the City of Platteville is  embarking on a new marketing campaign dedicated around the Tommyknocker.   

To move forward with the campaign, the City needs your help in creating the Platteville Tommyknocker logo. The top three design choices will be selected by City Staff, the City will then ask the community to vote for the design they would like to see become official. The winning Tommyknocker logo creator will receive a $25 dollar Platteville Chamber Gift Certificate.

Individuals interested in submitting a Platteville Tommyknocker logo for consideration can send their creative design to cityofplatteville@platteville.org by Friday, October 1st, 2021. Consideration and voting will take place during the month of October with the winner being announced during the Tuesday, November 9th Common Council Meeting.