The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-02
Especial Dispatch to The Herald from a

Especial Dispatch to The Herald from a
stan Correspondent
Scofield. Utah. May 1.-The most ter
ribIe explosion that the west has ever
known took place in the Pleasant Val
ley coal mines today. The dead num-
Der $50. and possibly more. Ninety
nine corpses were stretched out tonight
in the barn Of the company at tunnel
No and al No. /
Bill Edwards boarding house at tun-
mel No. i had forty-four corpses
They were arranged in rows. some
dirty and begrimmed with coal dust,
others cleaned and washed and placed
in rows.
on each man as fast as ne was iden-
titled a ticket was placed. giving his
name. There were at each place mourn
ing men working hard arranging the
bodies ard washing them off.
1t was a scene of desolation and de
spair, such as has seldom been seen
before
The causes Of this terrible catastrO-
Pie are not known in detail Every
thing here is in a terrible state Of tur-
Iaoil and agitation. so that no one
seems able 70 tell the exact facts.
Few persons blame the coal com
pany, for their lamentations have Up
TO this time drowned everything else.
They have not time for thoughts Of
blaming any one in cool reason, for
they are so distracted that they can
not think.
Indeseribable Scene
The seems tonight at the two places
where the bodies are being brought
out was almost intescribable. The wild
sorrow Of an earlier hour in the day
had given place to the deep dead calm
that follows tragedy This tragedy
is upon "a hundred homes in Scofeld.
Little children have been left without
fathers and wives have been left with
out husbands.
These dead are victims of the awful
after-damp Of a coal dust explosion.
The explosion occurred at 1925 this
morning. and ever since that time there
has been a terrible condition of af-
fairs here.
The day shift, consisting of about 30
men. went TO work at o'clock. OF
these hardly 100 have been accounted
for. The exact number of men who
went in the two tunnels cannot
be learned. for there are 10
/. records KEEP Of them. The only
way to tell the dead is when they
are identified by friends and acouaint-
ances after they have been brought out
and washed.
The explosion which ignited the coal
dust is thought 90 have occurred about
a hale mile from the mouth in tunnel
No. 4 Debris lines the tunnel. so that
the progress Of the rescuing parties
has been difficult, but their greatest
difficulty is the terrible after damp
which permeates every. cross entry and
every room in the mine. The best IN
E formation that can be obtained places
the explosion a half mile in
No One Survived.
No one has come out alive to tell the
tory so far. No one could live IN such
place.
The company has two tunnels into its
? property. One begins in the guIch just
a few feet above the railroad track and
runs more than two miles into the
mountain Of coal. no. 4 begins up a
gulch south Of the track, probably a
Quarter of q mile from It.. and runs
soVth As it is a com9arativelv new
tunnel IL has not been cut in so far
as the old one. The two join in sew
efal places through the meeting of
cross entries, which run east from No
I ana west from No f. Consequently
the mine is joined so that it is possible
10 20 in one tunnel and out Of the
other.
Probably two-ffths of the men were
in No. 4. They were scattered over q
wide area, for these miners 60 not
work in bugches. They work in pairs
at the faces Of cross entries and in the
nunberless rooms.
Force Of Explosion.
The first sign Of the explosion came
from No. 4 dpon the Hill. where fierce
destruction was wrought at the mouth
of the tunnel a terrible wind swept
out Of the small entrance. Jack VIII
son. a boy who drove cars into the
mine, had an awful experience. Just as
Re was entering. driving three horses
Ntached to coal cars, the blast came.
The horses were struck down. two Of
them being piled up. covered with dirt
timbers and debris. The third was
lifted above the cars >and blown over
them fifty yards To the other side OF
the tunnel. where il was found dead.
The boys experience was the more
= remarkable stiH. He was shot through
the tunnel which is only seven feet
Ugh by nine wide. and carried away
across the guIch at least $50 wards
among the small trees and underbrush.
Strange to say, he was not
killed and as he was among
those sent TO SAL Ike on the sDeeial
train.
y TirAbers were torn away from the
Z