Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-01-07
INTO A YAWNING PIT.
-Four Buildings Swallowed Up in
Cave-1n at Olyphant, Pa.
GROUND OVER GID MINE SETTLES.
Residents Had Ample Time to Flee to
a Point of Safety, and No One
Was Injured-Loss Is Esti-
mated at $4,000.

mated at $4,000.
Scranton, Pa, Jan. 3.-Abandoned
workings of the Eddy Creek colliery
of the Delaware and Hudson COM
pany beneath the very heart of the
town of Olyphant caved in Friday
afternoon and engulfed four frame
buildings, covering an aggregate
space of 5000 square feet. The set
Ting was gradual and people in the
affected territory escaped without be-
ing Immediately endangered. A gang
of men and boys who were at work
in the mine beyond the fall encount-
cred flooded dip" or depression in
vein in making their way out by
circuitous route and had to swim from
one rise to the other. No one either
above or below ground, however, sus-
tanned any injury.
Alarm Given in Time.
The vein that caved is lis feet be-
low the surface. The settling start
ed in the street just in front of the
hotel property. The brick pavement
was seen to be working and the tele-
graph poles and trees along the curb
were noticed to be wobbling. The
cause was at once apparent and the
alarm given to all the neighborhood.
Two sick guests were removed from
the hotel and taken two blocks away
to a private house. Some attempt
was made at saving the contents of
the buildings, but the rapidly in
creasing size of the opening in the
street put stop to this and every
one fed from the neighborhood.
Buildings Disappear.
At three o'clock the settling began.
AT $3.50 it was no longer perceptible-
In the intervening half!hour, O'Brien's
three-story hotel, Mrs. Anna Evans
double dwelling, Mrs. Jane Ackerly's
double store building and one-story.
barber shop were ground to debris in
the yawning pit, with the uppermost
part of the mound 40 below the sur
face. O'Brien's hotel plunged first
into the opening and entirely dis
| appeared. A few houses are project
ing over the edge of the pit. Twenty
u
noticed the opening had widened until
it reached all the way across the street
and halfway beneath the O'Brien ho-
TEL Then, with a terrific crash, the big
hotel pitched forward, turned COM
pletely about and landed on it's roof
in the bottom of the abyss. An i'm
mense amount of earth from all about
IF nfo1v 4 I,
it, and moment later the adjoining
double dwelling of Mrs. Evans fell
over the edge and demolished itself
on the ruins of the hotel. The Acker-
ly double story building and the Ev-
ans barber shop property slid into the
| chasm about the same time and piled
themselves broken and twisted on the
! debris
At nightfall it was believed there
would be no further settling, but no
; one. it is safe to say, went to bed in
any building within so yards of the
disturbed area. The property damage
: is estimated at $4,000.
The Cause.
The workings which caved were in
/ the uppermost part of the worked out
veins. The timbers, it is explained by
the company officials, supported
| thin roof of rock, which in turn sup
ported stratas of quicksand and gravel
extending to the surface. The timbers
! rotted, the roof gave way and the
| quicksand sifted through, carrying the
! gravel With it, The water mains broke
and a torrent of water poured through
i the aperture and down 45-foot
! plane. which has its heading just at
the point where the roof broke
through. Not until all that was above
| the area of the old workings which
cavedin had been sucked into the open
ing and down the slope did the settling
cease. Fortunately for the company,
the surface ceased cracking 90 feet
from the river bank Had it reached
the river the mine would have been
drowned.