The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-03-27
A Mine Horror III Wyoming.

EVANSTON, WYOMING, March o1.-A
large number Of miners wero Killed anu
injured by the explosion at p. m. yes
terday, in the Rocky Mountain Coal and
Iron Company's mine, No. S, at Red
Canon. Eight bodies have been recov-
cred, some beyond recognition.
All hope of rcscuing any body alive has
been given up. The dead roll now num-
bers fifteen.
About one hundred and fifty men were
employed in the mine, but most OF them
had gone out. The covering of the slope
and tho buildings at the mouth were
blown to atoms The mine was consid-
cred perfectly safe.
There are fifty widows and fully two
hundred and fifty orphans in the camp
to- day rs the result of the disaster. There
is no fire in the mine and the work of re-
covering the dead bodies is proceeding as
not be completed to-day. The interior Of
the mine is badly wrecked, caved in il
many places and full of foul air. All the
buildings at the mouth of the mine were
wrecked. The entrance to the mine is
by vertical passage into the side OF a
hill, not perpendicular shaft, and the
workings are very extensive. No OK
PLANTATION of the disaster has, as yet, been
discovered.
The work of recovering the bodies goes
steadily on night and day, pushed for
ward by volunteer squads of miners and
other citizens, who relieve each other
from time to time. The work is attended
with grave peril and the first group OF
miners who ventured to brave the gas,
fire damp and crumbling walls were
overcome and had to be rescued by
others. The terrific force Of the explosion
in fiuding vent at the mouth of the slope
blew the heavily timbered shed oyer the
mouth of the slope and over the passage
way leading out to the tipple, clear into
space, moving down the tops OF the
| power house, tipple shed and other build
ings at the mouth of the slope more efec-
tually than chain shot could have done.
A little boy who had come to the mine
with horse and buggy to take his grand
father, Henry Burton, home at the close
of the days work was driving over the
slope, near its mouth, on the public
highway at the moment of the explosion.
| He and the horse and buggy were thrown
almost perpendicularly in the air fully
| twenty-five feet, and sll fell in heap
| into the mouth of the slope, where the
buggy was demolished. The boy was
picked up unhurt and the horse an hour
| later was rescued not much hurt appar-
entity, although badly singed and stunned.
The shock of the explosion was felt for
miles around, and was distinctly heard at
| Evanston, seven miles away. The Rocky
| Mountain Company, generally described
as the Central Pacific Mines, has two
mines, Nos. and 6, with one mile face,
| making two separate mines with one
| hundred and fifty feet pillars separating
them. This leaves No. 6 unharmed, but
deprives the company Of one-half its
! capacity. This is the third disastrous
| ex plosion in this vicinity. In 1881 No. 2
| ing thirty-six Chinese and four white
men. In the spring of 1888 in Union
Pacific mine, No. 4, thirty-six men were
killed.
Newell Beeman, the manager, arrived
| from Salt Lake tonight and hastened to
| the mine.
The scene about the mine all last night
and to-day was heart sickening. The
air is filled with agonizing screams of so
| widows and $50 orphans as they gathered
about and saw the distorted features and
mangled remains Of father or husband or
son or brother, or realized at last that
| there was no hope to see their loved ones
rescued alive from the mines cruel
depths. Help and succor have been ten
| dered from all sources.
| Inc mules CQaG were ID tn0 mlQo W6re
| killed, as were the men, evidently by the
| force of the conclusion, and are removed
| as fast as they can be reached.
| The explosion blew out or loosened all
the timberinG and supports and cracked
and shattered the walls and roof of the
| interior of the mine, 80 that the search
| for the dead is attended with great peril.
| The work of recovering the dead becomes
more difficult as the working parties ad-
vance toward the seventh level, where it
| is thought the thirty-eight men who have
/ not been found were gathered to await
the coming of the last man-trip of the day,
which was to take them to the surface.
A few lives were saved because Of the
time of the explosion. The miners quit
| work at 6 o'clock, and it is customary for
them to be near the entrance and come
out Just as the whistle blows. A number
had come out and some had just left the
entrance to the mine slope, away from
the working tunnel, when the explosion
occurred, thus escaping death.
Sixty men perishcd in the disaster,
thirty-eight of whom are still in the
mine. About thirty of the dead belonged
to the A. O.. U. w. and were insured for
$4,000 each.