The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1920-03-25
Story of Imprisoned Miners in Hunter
Mine Officially Told by State
Mine Inspector


which Peter Grant and Emil Sayk'
were entombed for two weeks. an,
their final rescue form one of the mos
remarkable and thrilling stories in the
history Of mining in the west Rober
n. Bell, state mine inspector made q
thorough investigat ton of the accident
and in his report for 1919 he gives his
official account in which full credit is
given to those who aided in the rescue
of the imprisoned men. He says:
Mr.. Bells Account.
AT the Gold Hunter mine at Mullan
a bad stope cavern occurred in an idle
stope at 1O:45 a. m. on November Is
by which two miners were entombed
for two weeks and subsequently taken
out alive and practically uninjured.
Two of the rescuers were also trapper
in the rescue process but also miracul-
ously escaped injury.
''This case was unique i'm the an
nails of mine accident rescue work and
is worthy of a detailed description The
nervy crew of rescuers are. worthy of
the highest commentator for they
literally risRed their own lives all
down the line in their successful ef-
forts TO recover these two men.
"The Gold Hunter mine is situated
near Mullan, Idaho, on the south fork
Of the Occur d'Alene river. 1t is the
lowest grade ieau ore ueposlI ln 'ie
entlre district producing average MN
reed values Oh apou' t'ree anu one
mar per cent leau' pu' i"i 'u'''e'S
carrying niue pelle' '""" an ""n0e
OF SILVER TO each uili OF 'e"u' me ou'-
put Is about 900 tons " o"y. Inese
low values present an econoil'l' 'o"u'-
ton that probably haa some influence
on TINS case and similar previous stope
cave IN TINS NINE
'The deposit consists Of nearly
vertical zone of assuring and is oper-
ated through cross-cut tunnel "a mile
long extending i'm from the min on
the Occur d'Alene river with extern
sive drifting and stopping from this /
level through to the surface 1900 fee'
above and for several levels below /
through subsequent shaft develop /
ment The deposit consists of wide |
zonal occurrence of rather lenzy and |
roughly parallel or overlapping ore |
bodies and presents a hard. tough,
leathery silicious gangue with fine
lines of steel galena and pyrite. The
ore shoots vary in widths from few
feet wide to occasional pipe-like
swells as much as 40 or 80 feet wide
and about equal length. usually taper
ing to comparatively narrow vein
at each end and are worked in the
usual Occur d'Alene vertical vein tim
bering method OF heavy stope sets at
five-foot intervals with 10 to 3O-inch
cap timbers, 10 to l2-inch posts and
lighter collar braces The Slopes are
run in ninefoot floors with three
inch shoveling floor boards. The
mine is very substantially timbered /.
all its active stope area
and under the present management
The slopes have been much better fill
ed with waste than formerly.
'The mine has suffered three sim
lar previous caves one i'm the ad-
dining Ryan stope, one in the 200
irst west shaft stope and one in the
100 east stope. These collapses eX
ended back through 10 years of the
nine's history and the former caves
we're principally due to the economic
act that the ore body is very low
.rade' does not offer any sortable
waste when broken for filing and un-
er previous low prices of metals the
ompany could not afford to specific
lily break the waste 10 keep the
TOPICS as closely filled as they should
ave been.
However. the stope that caved this {
ime was fairly we'll filled with waste d
n fact. up to within six floors of the {
main back and. as it had been idle
or several months. there wasn't any q
eason to anticipate trouble at this r
oint Prior to the accident for d
Month. movement was noted i'm e
everal crosscuts to the main foot q
'all Of the zone where the vertical s
trata showed a horizontal displace- {
lent which produced little slough Il