The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-20

ences of the three men entombed in the
Alpha shaft on Dec. 4, written by A. ID.
Bailey and sent to the surface through
a siX-inch pipe:
Story as Related by Bailey.
ON Dec. 4. 1907, at I O'Clock, A. d.
Bailey, p j. Brown, c. w. Turner,
Fred Mcdonald and Hercules CONSTANT
reported at the Alpha shaft, as was
their custom, and went down to work.
Bailey, as pump man; Mcdonald and
CONSTANT, as machine helpers,k and
Brown and Turner, as machine men,
with Brown as shaft boss. All went
well until $50, when the cave-in took
place. with Bailey at the 1,O00-foot lev
el and the balance of the men in the
bottom of the shaft drilling at the
time. l had just shut down the pump,
and, as my tanks were empty, l was
cleaning off the strainer i'm the sue
ton of the pump, on the 1,OOO-gallon
tank. All of a sudden the tank be-
came so full of dust l could hardly
see, and l went to the back of the
tank for a few minutes to get out of
the dust, thinking it would stop, but
as it kept coming faster l thought that
either the steam line or water column
had burst on the shaft, and as L was
on the opposite side of the shaft from
my station pump, | got out of the
tank and was running for the tele-
phone, when Mcdonald just fell into
my arms and he called Bailey, Bal
ley! but, realizing the danger we were
in, l stood Mcdonald against the wall
of the pump station and went to the
telephone and called up the engineer
at the surface and told him to shut off
the steam. By the time l got through
taI l etc of q
and discovered Mcdonald and Brown
in the pump station, but there was so
much dust on them and the dust was
so thick at the station it was difficult
TO tell who they were.
Realized the Danger.
by this time / realized that the
shaft was caVing and knew that our
only salvation was the siX-inch water
pipe. So. while my companions were
exhausted from climbing the shaft and
were resting a few minutes, I was see
ing that the six-inch gate valve was
open, as the valve is right at the shaft,
and after the cave the valve body and
gear wheels were covered with dirt. By
this time the boys had gotten their
wind and the three of us got what old
tagging and old boards we could find
and placed and blocked what dirt we
could back into the shaft, as we were
afraid it would come out into the sta
ton and cover the end of our siX-inch
pipe. You can see how fast it was
coming down, as not more than fifteen
minutes had elapsed from the time the
cave started, and this station is ninety
seven feet above the bottom of the
shaft, and from the 1,G0O-foot level to
the bottom the shaft is three cOmpart-
meuts. five by fifteen feet inside the
timbers. and that space will hold quite
few cubic feet of debris. After rest
ing a short time we went back into
the station, and with the aid of a hand
hammer, cold chisel and some stiff
wrenches we took the fange bolts out
of the Hanged elbow next to the pump
and about seven feet from the line of
pipe coming down the shaft. We then
took the ell off, leaving the pipe open,
as shown i'm the sketch. | neglected
to state above that just as | got my
message to the surface to shut off the
steam the small telephone wires broke
and all communication with the sur
face was shut off for time.
Turner and Constants Dead.
&C. W. Turner and H. CONSTANT
without doubt are at the bottom of the
shaft, buried, as they were working in
the west end under the cage and when
drilling in the shaft il is customary fer
the engineer to hold thc bucket about
fifteen or twenty feet above the bot
tom, and therefore the bucket vas in
this position when the cave started.
We had our bucket suspended under
meath the cage, and the engineer. Gus
Swenden, states that the first thing he
noticed out of usual was the rope run
ming off the drum with the brake set,
so he reversed his hosting engine and
turned on steam, but all 20 no avail. as
the cage and bucket descended ia the
bottom of the shaft, as the debris on
top of the cage was bound to take il
down. After disseminating our water
line in the station, we had done all we