Arizona republican., 1905-05-31
Twenty-Five Men Buried in
 a Colorado Tunnel
MAY BE NO LOSS OF LIFE
The Victims Of the caVe-in Can Get Air-Reseue Work Begun at Once. but Its Completion May Be Indefi- nitely Delayed.

Montrose, Colo, May SO--A cave in occurred today at Gunnison tunnel, one of the largest irrigation projects of the United States government. en- tombing a number of worknen vari- ously estimated at from twenty to twenty five It is not likely that any of the men are dead. unless they were caught and crushed to death by falling earth, for the air plpes running in;o the tunnel have been working almost without interruption since the accident happened at ten o'clock this morni.lg. The tunnel site is about ten nlihes from this place and as yet no iufOI1nG-
 tion as to the names of the men en- tombed has reached here but it Is known they are all Americans. as the foreigners employed are reported safe
 When the work of constructing the tunnel began several months ago Q a number of expert miners from the San Juan district in the neighborhood af Telluride, who were unemployed as result of the strike there went 10 work in the tunnel and some of them may be among the men imprisoned En
 the tunnel now By order of Resident Engineer Mcconnell. all work -on the tunnel has been suspended and the entire force of men and machinery have been brought to the scene or the
 cave-in to aid in rescuing the men en- tombed. No headway can be made i'm i the tunnel for the reason that new breaks i3 the roof of the tunnel occur as fast as the debris is removed. A shaft is being sunk directly over the
 spot where the men are buried and machinery is in place to remove the dirt and rock as fast as it can be dug | hlOVrFl Ol1f ba
 trate sixty-five feet before the tun-
 mel can be reached and il is not
 thought the distance can be covered
 short of tomorrow noon.
 The cavein occurred beneath the bed 1 of Cedar Creek and was primarily due
 to softened earth, caused by seepaSe | from the creek A week ago it be- i came necessary to remove the timbars
 in the tunnel and strengthen the Dro- tecting roof by heavier timbers This i has been going on for several days. | about eight to ten feet of timberins | being removed and rebuilt at a time When the timbering directly beneath ! the creek bed was taken out this morn
 ing muddy water began to fall and
 before it could be checked, a great quantity of soft earth fell into the tun
 nel, completely filling the passage way. l All hands outside the blocked portion  ! of the tunnel were summoned and be-
 gan shoveling away the sticky mud. [ They were making good progress when
 1t was noticed that the mud and water
 oozed in nearly as fast as 1t could b.. 1 taken out Then it was that shoveline,
 was abandoned and men were ordered i to begin work on the shaft Unless a clayey substance is encountered by the
 shaft it is believed the entombed men
 can be rescued However. if 1t be- i comes necessary to select another lOca-
 tion for a shaft in order to avoid the mud, 1T will be necessary to go al | least 100 feet down from the surface
 and probably drift before the men can
 be reached.
 l By order of Resident Engineer Me | Cornell. the course of the creek bed 1 was changed some time age. so that there is no danger of water running
 into the tunnel in any great quantity.