Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1875-12-03
pecidI dispatch TO Ns'c York HsrG'd.]
PENNSYLVANIA.
WILKESBARRK. Nov. :

The most extensive and serious mining
casualty ever known in the Wyoming val
ley has Just occurred and seems to be still
progressing at the Chauncy and Grand
Tunnel mines, between Plymouth and
Nanticoke, about two and a half miles
south of the former place.
About two weeks ago Mr. Roberts, one
Of the proprietors Of the Chauncy mine,
noticed that the roof of the opening was
working in a most extraordinary manner
indicating that inside operations were at
tended with considerable danger to those
engaged in digging coal in the different
cham bers or employed in the various gang
ways. He watched the phenomenon with
the greatest interest, and was finally con-
vinced that the mine was doomed to Ger
tain calamity.
About eleven o'clock in the morning of
the 18th inst. he gave orders for the men
to leave the mine as soon as possible, and
remove as much of The company's proper
ty as could be taken out on the spur of the
moment. The miners to the number of
125 LETT their worn at twelve O'Clock, TAX
ing with them the implements of .heir call
ing. and two hours later. had it not been
for the caution and foresight of Mr.. Rob-
erts, q most fearful loss of life must have
occurred, as the whole number of miners
would have been entombed by about forty
acres of rock which crushed down and fill
ed up the honey combed opening beneath.
The disaster extended to Grand Tunnel
mine, adjoining the cave, it seeming to
drag over the roof in a southerly direction
until stopped by huge wall of rock known
raised up between the Grand Tunnel and
the adjacent mine operated by the Susque-
hanna Coal Company. In the Grand Tun-
mel some sixty or seventy acres of rock
have been hurled, effeclually closing opera
tions for months to come.
The whole fall, it will he seen, embraces
over one hundred acres, and the damage to
the mines is estimated at over 500, 600.
Several hundred miners have been thrown
out of snpioy lust al the time when
it IS most essentially important for them to
| he at work.
The effects of the cave in were truly ter
rife. Huge bouiders were thrown out OF
the mouth of the tunnel by the compressed
air as if they had been pebbles, and the
shock of the crash was like that Of an
earthquake. The working Of the roof pre-
vious to the disaster is represented as aw,
inspiring in an eminent degree. The
mountain seemed u be in travail and the
rocks groaned and writhed as if in the
throes of intense agony. The hollow
chambers re-echoed the dismal sounds,
and, taken altogether, the scene was one
ca lc ulated to intimidate the heart of the
hardest miner in the land. The dissolu.
ton of the mountain appears to be still
going on, and there is no predicting how
much more desolaton will ensue in that
quarter.
The Chauncy mine is operated by Messrs.
Albright. Son, Roberts Il Co., and the
Grand Tunnel is under the control Of the
Sunquehanna Coal company. One or two
other parts of the valley during the past
two weeks, and from the peculiar colnci-
dences in the matter The idea 10 gaining
strength that the casualties are the result
of slight earthquake which passed
through the valley in northeasterly and
southwesterly direction. This is the theory
Of the mine owners, who repudiate the inn
preston that robbing the pillars in the
mines has had any effect in producing the
calamities