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Part of our Haunted History series..... It is amazing how some
things can be in your back yard and you have no idea they are here.
We love to tell a bit of history occasionally with our caches.
Actual Newspaper Article from the Golden Globe September 9, 1889
HORRIBLE DISASTER: Ten Men Drown in the White Ash Coal Mine. The
most serious accident in the history of Golden occurred last Monday
afternoon, about 4 o’clock in the White Ash coal mine, situated at
the west end of Second street and not over a quarter of a mile from
the Golden post office. Ten men were at work in the mine on the
lower level 730 feet from the surface, when a flood of water broke
in on them without a moment of warning and they were all drowned. A
list of those killed is as follows: David Lloyd, cage man, single
aged 30 years. William Collins, aged 45 years, leaves a wife and
child. John Collins (his brother) widower, leaves five children,
his wife died nine years ago. Richard Roe, a nephew of the Collins’
boys, single, aged 22 years. Joseph Allen, aged 47 years, leaves a
wife and daughter. Joseph Hutter, aged 44, leaves a wife and five
children. Henry Haussman, aged 40 years, leaves a wife and five
children who all reside in Denver. William Bowden, aged 37 years,
leaves a wife and three children. Jack Morgan, 21 years, single.
John Murphey, 45 years, single. Although Richard Roe was single he
had a mother dependent on him for support. The trouble arose from
the water in the old Loveland mine, on the north side of the creek,
which was abandoned about ten years ago. It is about 1,959 feet
from the White Ash beside the track of the Colorado Central road on
the north side of town. The Loveland was filled with water, which
broke through the wall 90 feet thick between it and the White Ash,
and came rushing along the old tunnel of the White Ash to the
shaft, and flowed into the mine 440 feet below the surface. The
calamity was discovered by engineer Charles Hoagland, who tried to
send the cage down, but couldn’t get it to the bottom. This was
about a quarter to four. He gave all the signals to the cage man,
David Lloyd, but could not get an answer. He then knew that
something was wrong. Evan Jones, the foreman, climbed down the
ladder 280 feet in the shaft. He heard a great roaring, and knew
that the mine was flooded. He came back and reported to the general
manger, Mr. Paul Lanious. On examination, Mr. Jones found that the
water had gone out of the Loveland mine. He fathered all the men he
could and made any number of efforts to go down into the mine, but
couldn’t keep the light lit. Between nine and ten o’clock he put
down electric lights and attached heavy ropes to the grab winze.
Foreman Jones then went down about 300 feet, but the bad air and
sulphur working out of the old workings forced him to come back.
The general manager sent to the Ralston Springs coal mine and got a
heavy wire rope, put it on the ground and attached it to the
engine. At 7:30 the next morning Mine Inspector McNeil and Foreman
Jones went down on a heavy iron bucket, made an examination and
found that nothing could be done to save the men. They covered over
the top of the shaft and stopped the draft between the two mines.
The dead men are supposed to be 200 feet under the water. They were
in a tunnel 730 feet from the surface. The tunnel ran in about 900
feet under the creek. When Engineer Hoagland found that the cage
would not go to the bottom, he immediately tried to raise it but it
stuck, and repeated efforts were made with the full power of the
engines but it could not be hoisted up again. During the entire
night air was pumped into the mine in the hopes that something
might occur by which there would be a ray of hope for the lives of
the men. Probably a thousand people visited the place during the
night, among which were relatives of those who had met such a
terrible fate. Many were crazed with grief and almost prostrated
while others were only nerved on to do all in their power for the
relief of those below. It was however, soon determined that nothing
could be done, as they all drowned. State inspector of Coal Mines,
John McNeil, was in the city again Thursday, and it was the
privilege of our reporter to get from him some very clear
statements of the cause of the accident and the circumstances
connected therewith. Mr. McNeil says that when he first visited
this mine about six years ago, he inquired into the matter of the
water in the old Loveland mine. From all the evidence he could get,
he came to the conclusion that there was at least 70 to 100 feet of
wall between the 250 foot entry in the Loveland mine, and the 280
foot level in the White Ash mine, when the workings in these levels
were abandoned some eight years ago. It had also been represented
to him that the vein pinched up near this wall between these
levels, and he came to the conclusion a fault in the vein occurred
there. Fire was raging in the 280 foot White Ash level and he
ordered it walled up and closed to smother the fire out. Mr. McNeil
was satisfied the fire, which was caused by combustion of the
slacked coal, had by this walling up process, been checked and
practically smothered out. This conclusion he came to because he
has frequently examined these entries walled, and found the black
damp so bad in them the fire could not continue. It was evident
however, that fire had helped eat out this wall between these two
levels. After these many years of testing, thus causing the water
to burst through the 280 foot level of the White Ash mine, down the
vein and through the cross cut to the shaft in the 440 foot level.
In order to do this it came with sufficient force to carry all
before it. The question which seemed perplexing to Mr. McNeil, was
to know how the fire had reached that wall of 90 feet between the
levels of the two mines. He had thoroughly inspected the property
and came to but one conclusion. He now believe that the fire came
from the dump on top of the ground, and worked its way down through
seams and crevices along the vein to this place referred to. It
could not have spread upwards from below for the black damp was
sufficient evidence against that theory. But on the top, this dump
was on fire, and it must have come from that. The inspector said
that he had thought of every other calamity as possible but the one
that happened to these miners. Every other defect in regard to the
property, the manager was seeking to remedy as fast as money and
labor could do it, but the idea of being drowned never occurred to
them. It was therefore in this manner the state inspector permitted
ten men to labor one shift each in the mine, as all considered it
was being put in good shape. He considered the whole matter one of
those unfortunate calamities no one could foretell or warn others
against.
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