, 1890-05-08
BURNING COAL MINES.
A Rock Springs Vein on Fire for
Sixteen Years. -"
1t Once Undermined a Powder Store
House.
How Brave Men Removed the Bar
rels of Explosive.

The fire in No. 4, says the Rock Springs
Independent, has brought up the question
as to how long a niue will remain on fire
and whether it can be easily extingulshed.
There are a good many burning coal
mines in the country. There is one in
England hat has been burning foe over
forty years. Several in Pennsylvania
have been on fire from ten to fifteen years.
Thirty miles south of Rock Springs here
is a coal be TINT has been on fire a great
many years.
But right in Rock SPRINGS is an old
coal mine that has been burning not less
than sixteen years. We refer to the
curiosity known as Burning Mountain.
This mountain or hill is a considerable
elevation lying blck of Rock Springs and
carries the outcrop of No. l wien of
coal. The original No. l mine was on
the west side of the mountain
but the area OF coal was compare
lively small and in 1873 it was
worked out and abandoned. 1t was away
above water level, very dry and with con-
siderable slack in it, and the following
year it caught fire near one of the open
ings. 1t is not known how it caught ire,
but as nearly all the props and pillars had
been taken out and the mine was value
less no effort was made to extinguish
the flames. The fire gradually extended
into the mine, making rapid progress at
| Gr~t l,. al,.nn,r rnnra alnuixs ao tho
roof caved in AMI the supplY of air dimin-
ished.
On the north side OF the mountain a
large stone powder house forty feet long
had been built. 1t was a sort of dugout
built partly into the mountain. and con
tanned 600 kegs OF powder. About a
year after the fire started it was discov-.
cred one day that the fire had ad-
vanced along the vein of coal directly
under the powder house and that there
was great danger of an explosion that
would knock a section of Sweetwater
county into kingdom come. Mr.. w. II.
Mellor was superintendent of the mines
at the time and quickly organized a com
pany of volunteers TO remove the powder.
The iron door of the powder house was
hot and it was a risky thing to venture in
and the men did not care at first to take
the risk. Mr.. Mellor, Nick Chapman
and Adam Davenport went 10 first and
each took out a keg OF powder. The rest
Of the men then went in and the powder
house was quickly emptie1 OF its danger
Gus stock. The nearness of the fire may
be guessed from the fact that the kegs at
the far end of the house were SO hot that
thew could hardly be handled. There
was a general feeling of relief when al the
powder vas taken out and stored in a
powder car and the danger ofan explosion
avefted.
Since that time the fire has been stead.
ly advancing along the coal veins in vari'
Gus directions and has altogether under
mined an area of nearly fifty acres. The
FIRE has burned to the outcrop on the
southwest side and along this outcrop the
trace OF the fire has been most marked.
The ground is broken up into c~reyices in
all directions and gas, smoke and steam
are emitted from the openings though not
nearly as freely as formerly. 1t is evident
that the coal is nearly all burned out and
that in a short time the fire will die out,
or at least that there will be no indi
cations on tie outside that any interna
fro avists