The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1909-11-24
PRACTICALLY ALL BODIES
OF MINE VICTIMS found
Only About Score Unaccounted For
Men Made Great Fight For Life
With Two Rude Fans

Cherry, H., Nov Alphabetically all
OF the bodies OF the victims of the
mine disaster were found this morn
ing on the staircase at the mouth of
the third or lower level. One hun
dred and sixty eight bodies were
found. leaving about a score to be ac-
counted for. The miners evidently
had died i'm the rush for safety i'm the
explosion and fire of November 13.
The bodies were in a great tangled
mass, completely blocking the staircase
leading from the third to the second
vein and were scattered along the
vein where they had dropped before
reaching the stairway.
Black damp caused death. all means
of escape having been blocked by de-
bris falling and covering the top If
the staircase.
Lived Many Hours, or Days.
Death evidently did not come for
many hours, IL not days. Two rude
wooden ventilating fans were affixed
TO the shaft wall and stairway. The
men had turned these by hand in a
frantic struggle for air and In a hope
less effort to brush back the black
damp. One dead miners hands We're
found firmly gripped about the fan
as he had died.
The fans were made of pieces IF
wood hastily nailed together and
whirled about handles of miners
picks. Dinner pals were found in a
mass, many partly filed, showing the
men did not suffer from hunger and
that death must have come after their
escape from the depthsso of the lower
level One of the bodies was badly
burned.
Victims Leave Messages.
The bodies were found five hundred
feet from the main shaft on an elevat-
ed surface where the men had re-
treated before the advancing water
and fatal black damp. They had not
been able to escape the latter and had
died after a struggle that may have
continued for two days.
Messages scrawled on wood and ma
tural slate cropping from walls placed
the number dead at 100 or .16S. The
mine officials believe that less than a
dozen bodies will be found In other
sections of the mine. The exploring
party were in the gallery more than
an hour before the bodies were found.
They had waded in water waist deep
through q circular tunnel. making
their way toward the elevation shaft
sriI xxyha hn
found. To take out the bodies today
n skiff will be lowered to the vein In
which the bodies were found. 1t will
be rowed across four feet OF water In
the vein to the spot where the bodies
lie and fhey will be transported to the
main shaft for removal to the surface.
Gas Hurled Against Them.
With the reversal OF the fan. under
orders of those directing the work on
surface. the explorers assert that
deadly gas forming in the second gal
lery and creeping out of the escape
shaft was hurled back into the lower
level where the men had 60 "ered and
they had strangled before Il had an
opportunity to seek pockets or erect
projections against H.
Mine Owners Plan Baked.
The announced intention OF the mine
officials to pump out the water before
the arrival of the skiff was baked by
the refusal of the machinists to aid
them. Connections OF the pump have
been discontinued near the second
level The machinists who were called
upon declined to risk their lives in re-
pairing the machinery.