On May 1, 1900, Utah mourned one of the worst mine explosions in Western history.
At 7a.m., 300 miners, their sons and young boys who worked as trap boys and couplers, left their homes in Scofield and traveled by miner's coach to begin their shift at the nearby Winter Quarters Number One and Number Four interconnected mines owned by Pleasant Valley Coal Co.
It was May Day, representing rebirth, political protest and labor's struggle for the eight-hour workday — and Dewey Day honoring Admiral George Dewey, "Hero of the Battle of Manila Bay" during the Spanish-American War. In town, the quarantine flag signifying smallpox had been taken down, the measles epidemic had faded and spirits were buoyed. Everyone was looking forward to the evening's celebration and dance at the new Odd Fellows Hall.
According to the U.S. Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA), "Since it was the first of the month, many miners carried new 25-pound kegs of black power with them into their rooms." There, they would make their charges to shoot (or blast) the coal faces.
Around 10:15 a.m., 200 men were working deep within the mountain's mine when a low rumble churned to deafening thunder. The explosion, said to have occurred a half mile from the mine's Number Four entrance, shot fierce billows of smoke, coal dust, sand, dirt and burnt powder, acrid smells, broken and splintered timbers, twisted rails and mangled mine cars through the mine's corridors and portal.
Detecting a safe passageway in Number One, 103 miners followed good air out into the canyon and escaped.
But for the other 200 miners, if the violent explosion didn't kill them, the devastating afterdamp, the poisonous mixture of gases containing carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen, did.
"Men were found in all conditions, some seeming to realize their position [and] others found with their tools still clutched in their nerveless grasp," wrote J.W. Dilley, in History of the Scofield Mine Disaster, composed in the aftermath to list the dead and make public the enormity of grieving and suddenly impoverished widows and orphans.
"John James was found tightly clasped in the embrace of his son George, as though to shield him from the death that he knew was approaching," Dilley recorded. "Those in Number Four were badly scorched, [mutilated or burned beyond recognition]; while most in Number One were suffocated by the afterdamp,"
The Hunter family was left bereft of "all male members but two." Recent arrivals from Finland, the Louma family lost six sons and three grandsons "in an instant."
In a terrifying effort to find his father and brother in the mine, the young and inexperienced miner Will Clark ran "right into the lingering afterdamp" and just as quickly lost his own life. One miner, so badly burned, begged to be killed.
Hundreds of families were besieged by the tragic and horrifying event. Women rushing to the mines and trembling in fear questioned: "Where were their fathers, husbands and sons? Had they survived?"
Two months earlier, the mine examined by state Mine Inspector Gomer Thomas was considered well ventilated and free of gas. In an official report, reprinted in Dilley's book, Thomas surmised, "from all the evidence available, some person accidently ignited a keg of powder which caused the dust to rise, thus igniting the dust and carrying the flames from room to room from a point known as 'Pike's Peak,' and the immediate vicinity thereof. I find that nine kegs of powder were exploded near this place."
Fourteen kegs of black powder exploding elsewhere in the mine magnified the force and range of destruction.
Sixty men suffocating in the afterdamp were later found mere feet from fresh air.
Rescue and recovery attempts were slow, risky and disquieting.
Eileen Hallet Stone, author of "Hidden History of Utah," a compilation of her living History columns in the Salt Lake Tribune, may be reached at ehswriter@aol.com. Sources: "Mining Disasters, "a MSHA on-line exhibition and J.W. Dilley's "Scofield Mine Disaster," published in 1900.
Courtesy | Western Mining and Railroad Museum The Luoma family were recent immigrants from Finland. They lost six sons, one son-in-law and two grandsons in the explosion. 1900.
Courtesy | Western Mining and Railroad Museum Mine ruins at mine number four following Winter Quarters mine disaster May 1, 1900.
Courtesy | Western Mining and Railroad Museum Caskets were shipped form Salt Lake City and other western cities, then distributed to the families of the mine victims. 1900.
Courtesy | Western Mining and Railroad Museum A rescue crew, 1900.
Courtesy | Western Mining and Railroad Museum Miners at Western Quarters, 1900.