Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1900-05-03
A MINE HORROR
Two Hundred or More Lives Lost Near
Sc0field. -
BODIES OF MANY RECOVERED
Work of Rescue StiIl PrOgressinE,
With Little Hope For the Safe
~ of Those Who Have Not
Been Accounted For.


Salt Lake City, May 3.-Two hundred
or more lives We're lost in the explosion
in mine No. of the Pleasant Valley
""oal company at Scotield.
One hundred and thirty-seven bodies
lave been recovered. and the work OF
rescue is still progressing, although there
is no hope that any of the men who are
unaccounted for have escaped death.
The scene Of the disaster is just out
side Scofeld, on the line of the Ric
Grande Western railroad.
The explosion, which occurred in the
winter quarters of the mine, is attributed
of kegs of blasting powder. The com.
pany has two mines, known as Nos.
and 4. The explosion occurred in No.
A special train was sent from Salt
Lake bearing Superintendent Sharpe OF
the coal company, Superintendent Wei
by of the railroad company and somt
doctors. Two hundred collins have beef
ordered through local undertakers to be
sent at once to the scene of the disaster
The first news of the disaster received
in Salt Lake City gave the list of killed
as %, and it was not for hours that the
stood. 1t appears to have been one OF
those accidents that are incident to the
most carefully regulated mines and IL
spite of the best endeavors of the most
competent superintendent. The state
mine inspector is still without data t.
place the blame.
w. c. Wilson was one of the fortunate
ones on the lower level of No. who cs
capped. He said:
There was low rumbling noise
heard in the distance. followed by sort
Of wave that can hardly be described. but
that is known to all who have been in ex
ploSions, and | have been in several. ]
said to my partner that if gas was known
to exist in the mine l should say that an
explosion had occurred. l advised that
we run to the tunnel, and with me came
six men working in that section"
Clusters of Dead.
All men on the raise known as "Pike's
peak" We're lying in clusters. John
James, Il county commissioner, was
found with his son, George, intwined in
each others arms. These men apparent.
ly had realized that death was coming
for all were found as though in attitudes
of defense. Some had their cloals about
them; others had tried to protect them
selves by burying their faces in the
ground floor of the mine. hoping thus tc
escape the deadly gas that was fast en-
veloping them They must have lived fol
some time in expectation of rescue.
Bernard Dougall. a young engineer
from Springville, Utah who had entered
the mine a few minutes before with his
assistants, was found with hts instru.
ment set, while he and his men lay deaC
around it, AS fast as the bodies were re
moved they were carried to the company
barn across the canyon, where they were
prepared for Identification.
The scene was CHASTITY, yet most pa
thetc. Between the blackened and stall
wart men lay about a dozen lads who had
been employed as couplers and trappers
Some lay alongside of their fathers anG
oder brothers.
AMER the IOlll arr clearcO away iron
No. ] the work of rescue began, and il
was soon found that many of the miners
of No. l had been suffocated. The mer
of the lower levels had been warned OF
the explosion and had made their escape
before the gaseous air had reached them
Cars were taken in. and the dead were
brought to the mouth of the mine.
Here men, women and children, rela
tives of the dead miners. had begun Il.
gather, and as the bodies were brought
out and recognized by their families theil
lamentations were heartrending. The
dead were all carried into the boarding
houses directly opposite the mine, and al
midnight 1871 men, nearly all heads OF
families. We're laid out.
Mines Good Reputation.
This mine has been worked for over
20 years and has the reputation, accord
ing to State Mine Inspector Thomas, OF
being one of the. best ventilated and pro-
tected in the west. He states that he in
spected it less than five weeks ago and
believed it entirely safe ut that time. 1t
has mover had bad air and has always
been free from gas, and as the coal is all
loaded with shovels there has not been Il
large accumulation of dust.
Ninc-tenths of the men killed were
Americans and Wcshmcn. The former
came mostly from Utah, with a small
number from Tennessee and Colorado.
Harry Taylor. one of the injured men,
said he remembered the moment of the
explosion, and he told of it. few words
at time, between paroXysms of pain.
~ was repairing some track out on the
Dump" said he when / started toward
the mouth of the tunnel to get some tools.
| got about 80 feet away from the tunnel
mouth when suddenly there was an aw
full report ard at the same time Il black
cloud, filled with rocks, bore down on me.
| felt several small rocks strike me; then
felt jolt on my side and then-theA
came away. Next thing | knew l woke
with man pouring some brandy down
my throat, and l saw the boys lying all
around me. moaning for help"
!. NJ Beattie of Scofield, who is the
storckecpcr. said on his arrival
that no words could portray the horror,
the sadness and the appalling extent of
the catastrophe. When he left, none
could tell how many had been killed, but
it was thought that the shaft in No. had
hepu wiped ont and many killed at No. l. |