The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-10-22
FIVE MINERS ARE
CAUGHT IN CAVE
Accident in Highland Boy Mine in
Bingham Canyon.
MEN ARE PROBABLY DEAD
PERSISTENT EFFORT is BEING
MADE TO REACH THEM.
Especial to The Herald1

Especial to The Herald)
Bingham, Oct. 21.-Miners Of the High
land Boy are working in continuous
shifts with drill and powder in an eff
fort TO reach five miners who were
caught by a cave-in at the mine shortly
after II O'Clock this forenoon. The i'm
prisOned miners are:
{. !. Johnson.
John SimeriVO.
Tony Rife.
Mike Peson.
Charles Peterson.
1t will probably be impossible to
reach the buried men before noon to-
morrow and hope of saving their lives
has been abandoned. The work is be-
ing pushed as vigorously as if il were
certain that the men still lived, how
ever. General Manager Charming is in
personal charge of the work and is de-
teTnined that if the lives OF the men
are lost il viii not be due TO lack of
effort 10 save them.
The cave-in took place at the high
est point of the Highland Boy work.
ings. Six men were a work in a stope
about 20 by y feet and - feet high, in
what is known as the East Butte stope,
about 800 feet from the mouth of the
Butte tunnel and less. than forty feet
from the surface of the ground. The
ore in the stOpe was about worked out
and it is believed the cave-in was
caused by moisture from melting snow
loosening the earth and gravel above
the StOpe.
One Miner Escaped.
Six men were at work in the small
stOpe when the accident took place.
one of them was some distance out
when the rock fell. OF the others, four
were in one set, with the fifth IN the
set Immediately above them, so that
the caYe-in found the five unfortunate
men closely grouped.
The sixth man. q Finn, whose name
cannot be learned because he is at
work with those who are seeking 10
rescue his five companions, was some
distance from the others and was able
to make his escape from the stOpe to
the other workings and to give the
alarm. This man was in the act of en-
teFing the stope when the accident took
place.
The cave-in came without warning.
Mine Foreman Sam Erickson visited
the stope only a few minutes before the
accident At that time everything ap-
peared to sc in good shape, with moth
ing TO indicate that the roof was I'M
safe.
The men employed in the mine i'm
mediately began TO work toward the
spot where the five men were caught.
II was decided TO drift TO them through
new ground. The work can be done fas-
ter in this way than by attempting to
work through the debris where the min
ers would need to be constantly on
guard against further accident.
Work of Rescue.
The location of the five men is known
accurately and only about thirty-five
feet of drift was necessary 10 reach
them from the other workings. Drills
and powder are being used in the work
of drifting, with seven men, working in
short shifts, constantly at work
Manager Charming was notified
promptly and came out from Salt Lake
on the early afternoon train to assume
personal charge of the rescue work. He
is now at the mine.
The small space in which the five men
We're at work has led TO a conviction
that the men viii die of suffocatiOn, if
falling rock. long before the rescuers
can reach them. No response has come
in answer to frequent attempts to sig
nal to the imprisoned men.
OF the five men, Johnson and Peter
son are Firms, Simerivo and Peson are
Austrians and Rifle is an Italian. So
far as known, none of the men are
married.