175 Dead in Mine! -- March 8, 2024

Seattle Star, 08-March-1924

100 years ago today, on 08-March-1924, series of explosions at the Castle Gate coal mine in Utah killed 171 miners underground and the leader of the team that tried to rescue them. The shift before the crew that faced the explosion had failed to suppress coal dust. 

175 DEAD IN MINE!
BLAST
WRECKS
SHAFT!

Workers Buried Alive by Death
Explosion Shattering Works in Utah
Mine; Hope Is Abandoned

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo., March 8. -- One hundred and seventy-five men, trapped in Utah Mine No. 2, at Castle Gate, Utah, today by three terrific explosions from an unknown cause, are all dead, according to the belief of officials this afternoon.

No one could possibly be alive in the mine, officials reported in messages here.

At 1:30 p. m. black damp was pouring out of the portals in such a deadly stream that rescuers were driven back and were being compelled to remain helplessly outside until more equipment arrives on the scene.

Without a single survivor to give them hope, or a person who can explain the cause of the explosions within the mine, relatives of the unfortunates by hundreds crowded about the gathering number of rescue crews.

Air shafts were totally wrecked. There is no avenue left by which entrance can be made without the best of equipment for battling gas.

HEARTRENDING SCENES ARE
WITNESSED AT TUNNEL MOUTH

Scenes at the tunnel mouth are heartrending in the extreme. There is not even the customary amount of hope for those entombed in similar explosions. Guards have been compelled to fence off enough space to give room for workmen, as the mass of relatives surge toward the entrance.

Fifteen rescue parties had arrived at the scene but no headway was being made and it was evident days probably would pass before all details of the disaster become available and all bodies recovered.

SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS
SHATTER MINE WORKINGS

A series of explosions occurred shortly after the men went to work today, reports stated. After that -- silence. What caused the disastrous blasts has not been learned. Officers of the company immediately rushed out of Salt Lake on a special train to take charge of the attempt at rescue.

Fire equipment from the other camps of the Utah Fuel Co., and from the Spring Canyon Co. were rushed to the scene. The mine rescue car at Butte left for the scene and experts with oxygen tanks were also sent.

A corps of doctors and nurses from all available points in adjacent territory went to the scene. First reports stated that 183 men entered the mine. This ‘number was later changed to 175 and a telephone message from the scene late this afterncon said it was possible that only 173 were in the wrecked shaft, three men being sick and unable to go to work.