Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1922-09-19
BURIED miners
PER|SHED SHORTLY
AFTER DISASTER
CONTINUED from Page one.)


shift boss took two men and went
to Investigate. They found the
shaft afire at the 5000 foot level,
CHANGED death from gas and were
carried through the fire to the
top Of the mine. They began a
work OF fire fighting which pre-
sented merger into one Of rescue
for the men below, for the fire
blocked the shaft and prevented
the escape OF the miners.
Men came from all over the
west to offer their services, the
curious fellowship of miners
bringing hearty offers Of service
from all who could get to jack
son. Mining companies in distant
states, even in Mexico, telegraph
ed proffers of assistance. The
Kennedy Mining company, oper-
ators of an adjoining shaft, sunk
the bitterness of lawsuit in its
Willingness to be Of service and
loaned all it's property and facil-
ities to the work Of rescue.
Hard Work of Rescuers
For many weary days, disap-
pointed some times by unexpect-
ed difficulties and heartened some
times by equally unexpected bits
of good luck, rescue crews drove
through the choked tunnels which
had once connected the two mines
or battered at the rock separating
one of the Kennedy's' drifts from
the Argenaut's 1900 foot level.
EARLY yesterday drill was driv-
en- through the last barrier Of
rock into the Argonaut,
Sweating shoulders and un-
breakable wills drove steel picks
at the rock until this hole had
been enlarged enough to permit
a man to pass. Five men made a
hasty unauthorized exploration of
part of the Argonaut, seeking sur
yivors at the imminent risk of
their own lives. The opening was
enlarged SO that rescue crew
could pass, and all day explora-
tions went on without any result.
The levels were clear, there was
no sign of any miner left in them,
either dead or alive. The rescue
men, hampered by their oxygen
helmets, and the heat of the un-
derground workings, turned their
attention to exploring the cross
cuts and drifts leading from the
tunnels already trayersed In one
they found a bulkhead that had
not been there when the miners
went below that fatal midnight
three weeks ago.
All Killed by Gas
Hope rose anew at this evil
dence that some. at least of the
entombed men had not died an in
stant death from the gases
thrown off by the fire in the
shaft and the reseuers pressed on.
They found another bulkhead not
built OF planks and timbers and |
stuffed with torn clothing like |
the first, but erected of earth, |
rock and debris. 1t was pitiful, |
gaping. in places so that rescuers
could see through it, but it check |
ed the air currents and the men
in the oxygen helmets halted be-
fore afraid to tear it down while |
the air before it was poisonous
lest they thereby cause sudden
death to any who might be alive
beyond it.
Hope stood at its highest peak
when this second bulkhead was
found. and from that height it
made its greatest plunge. Before
those who waited above for news
OF their loved ones knew even
tkat the rescuers had broken thru
the bulkhead, word came that
the bodies OF AZ men had been
found and counted. Not long af-
ter word came up that the other
five also had been found dead.
City Takes Blow Calmly
Jackson took the blow calmly,
and presently found comfort in
the sure knowledge, gained from
notes left by two of the men and
from the reports of reseuers re-
garding the mems work before
they died, that quick, merciful
death had come to them instead
Of the agonies of starvation.
There was no lingering in dark
ness 5000 feet below sea level.
The gas came, then lethargy, then
oblivion.
Records scrawled on paper by
one man and scratched ON tim
Der by another, showed they had |
lived but little more than three
hours after erecting their pitiful |
barrieades. Saddest of all, was the
mute record OF the hare haeinninnr