Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-03
HOUSES SINK INTO EARTH
rimbers Of an Abandoned Mine Give Way
Creating Fissure
AS BY EARTHQUAKE THE GROUND OPENS
People Are wRrned by Breaking OF
Pavement ana Fatal consequences
Averted by flight TO safe
Ground.

SCRANTON, Pa, Jan. abandoned
workings Of the Eddy Creek colliery Of the
Delaware Hudson company. in the very
heart OF the town of Oliphant, caved in
%his afternon and engulfed four frame
buildings, covering an aggregate ground
space Of 5000 square feet
The settling was gradual and people in
!he Affected territory escaped without being
Immediately endangered. A gang OF men
and boys who were at work in the mine
heyond the fall encountered a flooded dip
sor depression in a vein In making their
way out by clrcuitous route, and had to
Nswim from one rise to the other. No one
&ther above or below ground, however,
SUSTAINED any injury.
The settling began at o'clock and con.
tinued thirty minutes. In the intervening
half hour O'Brien's thTee-stOry hotel, Mrs
Ann Evans double dwelling, Mrs Jane
Ackerly's double store building and a one
story barber shop were ground to debris
= the yawniag pit, with the uppermost
Harts of the mound forty feet below the
Surface
The vein that caved is 115 feet below the
.surffce The settling started in the street
just in front OF the hotel property. The
brick pavement was seen to be working
Nnd the telegraph poles and trees along
pause was at once apparent and the alarm
was given to all the neighborhood.
Two sick guests we're removed from the
hotel and taken two blocks away to a pri-
vate house. Some attempt was made at
sewing the contents of the buildings, but
Ihe rapidly increasing size Of the opening
N the street put stop to this and every
one fed from the neighborhood
Twenty minutes after the disturbance vas
first noticed the opening had widened until
II reached all the way across the street and
half way beneath the hotel. Then with a
terrific crash the big hotel pitched forward
turned entirely over and landed on it's ROOT
IN the bottom Of the abyss. An immense
amount Of earth from all about the edge
of the hotel went down with It and a mo-
ment later the adjoining double dwelling
OF Mrs. Evans fell over the edge and de-
nolished itself on the ruins Of the hotel
The Ackerly double store building and the
Evans barber shop promptly slid into the
chasm about the same time and piled them
selves broken and twisted.
At nightfall II was believed there would
be no further settling, but no one, 1t iS
safe to say, went to bed tonight in any
building within fifty yards OF the disturbed
area.
The property damage is estimated al
S3O,OOO. Inc workings Wnlch caNeu were 1T
the uppermost part OF the worked out
veins. The timbers It is explained by the
company oficials. supported a thin roof oi
rock, which in turn supported stratas o
quicksand and gravel extending to the sur
face. The timbers rotted. the roof gave
way and the qulcksand sifted through
carrying the gravel with 1t. The water
mains broke and torrent OF water poured
through the aperture and down forty-flve'
foot plane which has its heading just al
the point where the roof broke through.
Not until all that was above the aret
of the old works which caved in had beer
sucked, into the opening and down the slop'
did the settings cease. Fortunately fol
the cap, the surface ceased cracking ninet,
feet from the river bank. Had Il reached
the river the mine would have been flooded
Up to midnight no further disturbance
had been reported.