The Fallon standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1920-1958, 1922-09-20
Find AZ Dead in
Areonaut Mine
Miners Entombed August 27th Died
Within Few Hours After
Fire Started


Rescue workers succeeded late
Monday afternoon in entering the
lower levels of the Argonaut mine
at Jackson where AZ miners have
been entombed since August 9th.
The miners we're all dead and a
note found on one of the bodies in
dicated that all must have died with
in few hours after the fire started
Mine officials say that death came
painlessly to the men as a result of
carbon monoxide gas.
Review of the Disaster
The men imprisoned in the Argo-
naut mine, who were on the night
shift, went down to work the even
Ing of Sunday. August 81. Shortly
after midnight, the hour when lunch
is eaten down in the mine, one of
the miners reported smelling smoke,
and Clarence Bradshaw, the night
shift boss, started up the incline
shaft with two men in a skip to
discover its location.
At about the 3000-foot level they
encountered dense smoke and in
tense heat, but they decided to take
chance on reaching the surface in
safety, although Bradshaw was tenn
porarily overcome by the smoke. A
rescue crew was at once formed to
bring the men out in skips, but the
heat had increased so much that Ii
was impossible to get below the
2S00-foot level. Water was pumped
down through an eight-inch pipe and
skips filled with water were lowered
to the 2S00-foot level and dumped,
but these and other efforts to stop
the fire and penetrate the barrier
failed. Telephone wires were burn
ed, making 1t impossible to COM
municate with the men below
To prevent the flames spreading
further, the main Argonaut shaft
and an air shaft called the Muldoon.
which goes down straight for 500
feet and then continues in the form
of offset shafts, until IL connects
with the lower Argonaut levels,
were bulkheaded. The Muldoon
shaft had a safety ladder in it but
egress by this route would have
taken hours under ordinary circum-
stances and with the air filled with
gas 1t could not be used
Constant tests were made to as
certain If the gas had diminished or
the flames ceased but the experts
were not able TO penetrate the smoke
barrier. After ten days the fire ap-
parently died down to some extent
The United States bureau of mines
Office in Berkeley was notified inn
mediately and government and state
mining experts arrived with rescue
apparatus during the day of August
2S. They joined with mine officials
in forming an official rescue COM
mittee and 1t was decided to cut
through to the Argonaut from the
adjoining Kennedy mine by means
of two abandoned tunnels which
were closed up in a fire in the Arg
onaut two years ago. These eonsti-
tuted extensions of the 1900 and
3900-foot levels of the Kennedy.
A crew from the Argonaut force
was put to work in the 3e00-foot
level and one from the Kennedy in
the 3900-foot. Their progress at
times was fairly rapid, at others
handicapped by loose aud sticky
muck. The most serious setback was
mass of hard green stone in the
3600-foot level, which had to be
passed by making a detour of 100
feet, which took several days.
Final entrance into the Argonaut
mine was made by the crew work
ing from the 5000 foot level of the
Kennedy mine 1t was some time
before the bodies of the entombed
miners were found as the searchers
had to proceed cautiously on account
of the bad condition of the air and
the danger of caVe-in