The New York herald., 1922-09-19
ALL THE At TRAPPED
miners FOUND DEAD
BEHIND A BULKHEAD
Discovered by Federal Mine
Agent Who Led the Res
cue Crews.
NOTE TELLS OF DEATH
Indicates Men Succumbed
Few Hours After the
Fire Started.
EVERY EFFORT IN VAIN
Victims Built Barriers in Vain
Attempts to Keep Out
Deadly Gas.
EVERY EFFORT IN VAIN


Press) All forty-seven of the miners
entomped in the Argonaut mine Au-
gust 81 are dead, it was announced
officially just before 3 o'clock tonight.
All the bodies were found behind the
second of two bulkheads the imprs-
oned men had built in n cross cut
1850 feet down in the mine. Byron 0.
Pickard, chief of the Federal Bureau
of Mines for this district, was the first
man to go behind the bulkhead and
discovered the bodies
Pickard on an earlier exploration
behind this bulkhead had counted
forty-two bodies and expressed the be-
lief then that there were others there.
Note Found on Body.
A note found on one Of the bodies in
dicated to the mine officials that the
tapped men had met death within five
hours after they were entombed This
rtte read as follows.
"3 A. NJ. gas bad
The same note bore scrawled figure
H." apparently indicating the same
man who had attempted to leave word
for those who might come after of the
condition of the mine at that hour.
Nine officials declared that the con-
dition of the cross cut behind the bulk
head was such that life could not have
been sustained there by the cntombed
men for more than five hours
The IoligS xynra r,iiad apa ~, tay. -
another and decomposition had prog
ressed so far that identification would
be Impossible. Pickard reported
The mine officials said the actions Of
the men. as evidenced by the bulkheads
they built and other matters. including
the scribbled note. indicated they had
died soon after being entombed.
The officials declared the mute evil
dence OF the mems struggles showed
they were forty-seven Of the most cool
headed men imaginable
rs Give Clothing for BuIkhead.
sixteen of the entrapped miners re-
moved their clothes to provide material
for stuffing the cracks in a wooden
barrier hastily constructed, which was
found early this evening.
Then another barrier was built of
rock, earth and debris. However, the
gas and fumes from the fire appar-
entity seeped through the first bulkhcad
and the men fled from the site where
they were building the second one TO
start a third farther on.
This third attempt to wall off the
death dealing gas was made at the end
of the 1850 foot cross cut In the Argo-
naut. but the fact that only bare start
was made at 1t proved, the mine officials
said. that the deadly carbon monoxide
and the suffocating carbon dioxidc had
reached it and performed their fatal
Office before the forty seven unfortunates
could raise even an excuse for a barrier.
Mine officials said that death hal
come TO the entombed men painlessly.
The gases they said. would produce
first lethargy. then coma and finally
death.
Jackson as a whole took the rag'e
news calmly and coura eoously. The
general topic of conversation, except N
the immediate family circles OF the dead.
was arrangements for the funeral,
which. 1t was believed, would be a joiat
affair.
Jackson tonight takes its greatest
tragedy I'm silence. After the irst hasty
news that forty-two men had been found
dead crowds Howed from homes, stores
and hotels. Small groups gathered on
the sidewalks and discussed the possibil-
ity that some at least of the live others
who had been entombed since August
81. we're alive.