The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-12-18
A TOUGH PROPOSITION.
Incidents in Retimbering of Holy
Terror Shaft

Incidents in Retimbering of Holy
Terror Shaft.
The news that the United States
Mining Company Of New York, who
now have control of the Holy Terror
property at Keystone, is about to
unWater the shaft and continue oper-
atlons, recalls some incidents that
attended the retimbering of the
workings which was conducted UNI
der the direction of John Simm dur
ing the time that Charles Morgan
was in charge of the property. Mr..
Simm was made a liberal offer to re-
place the old timbers in the 1900
feet of shaft, taking on himself the
entire contract, but he preferred to
do the work at days wages, and sue
ceeded in doing it we'll. 1t was not
accomplished, however, without SER
ious difficulties, and there are stor-
les of hair-breath escapes on the
part of the miners who were en-
gagged on the job.
The original timbers of the Holy
Terror shaft were anything but SUBJ
stantial affairs, for the richness of
the ore drew the attention of the
operators from all details of the
work but the taking out of profits,
and consequently the safety of the
workings was often overlooked.
when John Simm undertook the
work of retimbering, he found the
shaft in dangerous condition and
it required the utmost care to pros
ecute the work and at the same time
protect the lives and limbs of his
men. The job was completed with
only few minor injuries reported,
but it kept Simm in highly nervous
condition until the last set had been
put in place.
One OF the miraculous escapes
took place during the early stages of
repair work, and at time when the
really dangerous condition of the
shaft had not been fully ascertained.
one afternoon piece of rock weigh
Ing a ton and half, broke away
from the wall of the shaft about
100 feet from the surface and forced
out the tagging. AS luck would
have the tagging fell sidewise and
caught one of the side timbers, form
Ing a platform upon which the rock
lodged and was thus prevented from
falling down the shaft. At that mo-
ment there were three men work.
ing at the bottom OF the shaft i'm
mediately under the rock, and when
they later came to the surface and
found how close they had been to
death they were on the verge of ner-
vous prcstration.
At another time when the timber
ing was nearing completion, 1t was
necessary to place three pieces of
tagging in the bottom set Simm d.
rected one of the men to go below
and tend to the work, out the man
seemed timid about undertaking the
job alone. At the time Simm and
several Of the men were on the 100
foot level and when the man showed
disinclination to go down alone,
he accompanied him, and they had
the JoD nnlshed IN few minutes.
They returned on the cage to the
lO0-foot level, and picked up the
other men continuing to the surface.
The last man had hardly stepped
from the cage when nine sets of tim
bers broke away and plunged to
the bottom of the shaft. These are
only few Of the stories told of the
retimbering Of the Holy Terror
shaft, but they are indicative of
what chances were taken in putting
the workings in shape for opera
ton.
But the danger is now all past;
the shaft is in flrst-class condition
almost to its entire depth, there re-
naming only about twenty-five feet
to be constructed.