The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-09-06
A MONSTER CAVE IN.
The Mining Town of Scotch VAL
ley Swallowed Up,
ESCAPE OF FIFTY NINE WORKERS.

Their Usual Means Of Exit Cut on. the
Men Finally Make Their Way to the
Surface, Aided by Resouers, Through
an Air Shaft.
LOFTY, Pa, Sept 6-The little mining
town of Scotch Valley, in Lackawanna
county, near this place, was swallowed
up last night in one of the most complete
mine cave ins ever known in this region.
The scene of the disaster is on the eastern
slope Of Mount Lookout, the score of
houses composing the hamlet being at the
m )uth of the shaft Of Mount Lookout
colliery. The widest excitement prevails
throughout the region, and details of the
cave in are fragmentary. 1t is known,
however, that the dozen houses on either
side of the principal street of the hamlet
are completely swallowed up in the gap
ing sinkhole, and nothing can be seen OF
the other buildings Of the town but the
roof gables and chimneys. 1t is impossi-
BILE to estimate accurately the number Of
fatalities. Rescuing parties are now ex-
erting every means to release the occu-
pants of the engulfed dwellings. For
tunately, but one of the buried houses has
thus far taken fire.
The cave in was caused by the giving
away of the timber supports in workings
of the Mount Lookout colliery, which
have not been in operation for about two
years. About 8 o'clock last evening the
inhabitants of the hamlet were startled
by the rumbling, thunder like reports
which warned them of the falling of tons
of rock and debris into the deserted cav
erns of the abandoned mine, many feet
beneath them. The terror stricken peo-
pie were still further Mortified when the
ground trembled and swayed like an
earthquake beneath them, and then the
III fated village sank out of sight in the
gaping cavity
Meanwhile some fifty miners were i'm
prisoned in the colliery, blindly stumbling
through the dark passages, looking for a
means of escaping from their living
grave They had been at work in a new
portion of the mine, and were suddenly
terrified by the thunder of the crashing
rock and stone between them and day
light Their usual means of exit from the
mine was completely wiped out by the
cave in. James Perrin. one of the Oldest
of the miners, got the handful of men to-
gether, however, and started to lead them
up through a tunnel which had been
used as an air shaft but which led to the
surface through a series of steep slopes.
The men had not gone far, however, be
fore the accumulation of coal damp
warned them of the danger lurking in the
air. 1t was necessary for them to extin-
guish their lamps to guard against an ex-
plosion and the remainder of their desper-
ate journey became a blind cropping about
in the dark in the footsteps of their leader
Meanwhile a rescuing party on the sur
face had made an attempt to cut pas
| sage through the mass of debris which
| blocked the main entrance. Failing in
| this some of the more daring of the res
( cuers descended the air passage, and hap
! pened to penetrate the slope where the
| imprisoned miners were struggling up
wards. The men were carried to the sur
| face, where a great crowd of excited,
panic stricken people were awaiting them.
The work of rescuing the persons impris-
oned in the engulfed houses is still in
| progress.