Park City, UT Mine Explosion, Jul 1902

PARK CITY MINE HORROR

Thirty-Five Men Lose Their Lives in the Daly-West and Ontario Mines --- Accident Caused by Explosion of Gas.

By Associated Press.

Park City, Utah, July 16 – This city and camp are today plunged in the deepest grief that they have ever experienced. The cause of their sorrow was an accident which occurred last night in the Daily-West and Ontario mines, an accident that brought death to thirty-five men, twenty-nine in the Daly-West and six in the Ontario. The disaster was the result of an explosion occasioned by JOHN BURGY, a miner, going into the magazines of the Daly-West mine with a lighted candle. The act cost him his life and the lives of many other miners besides. His own body was blown to atoms. Not a fragment has been found. All the other victims are recognizable, their faces being ghastly and easily identified by relatives and friends.

The explosion occurred at 11:20 last night and in a twinkling the most deadly gas was being generated throughout the mines. It crept through every tunnel shaft and incline and in a very short space of time scores of miners found themselves face to face with death. The work of rescuing the imperilled [sic] dead was quickly and heroically undertaken. The men were brought to the surface just as fast as the disabled machinery would permit. The victims had to be brought up the shaft in one compartment cage, one of the compartments having been wrecked by the explosion. Every man who went down with the first rescuing party was overcome by the deadly gas and it was with the utmost difficulty that the machinery was kept in motion. When it was apparent that all remaining men in the mine were dead and further rescuing work would be futile, the machinery was stopped for the time being and at present nothing is being done to recover the other bodies, nor will anything be done in that direction until some of the gas generated by the explosion has passed out of the mine.

Following is a revised list of dead: Dead recovered from Daly-West: JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, single; JOHN BURGY, single; MIKE CONLIN, single; CHRIS CULLEN, single; JOHN DEVLIN, single; HARRY DEVLIN, single; RICHARD DILLON, single; JOHN FEATHERSTONE, married; JOHN GILL, single; WILLIAM LANCE, single; JOHN LIVELY, single; JOHN MALONEY, single; JAMES MORRIN, single; THOS. MCKOWAN, single; JOHN MCAULIFF, single; ELIAS NELSON, single; WILLIAM SIMS, single; J. B. TIMBLE, married; W. G. GIGGELLAND, married; EDWARD HALL, single; WILLIAM HARLIN, single.

Dead remaining in the Daly-West: JOHN ECKSTROM, single; MIKE CROWLEY, single; JOHN CARNEY, single; PETER HALL, single; ROY JACKMAN, married; [illegible] KELLY, married; CHARLES MCALLINDEN, single.

Dead at the Ontario: GEORGE GARVIN, married; WILLIAM S. WEVELL, single; STEPHEN BARRELL, single; CHRIS P. SADERUP, married; W. F. THOMAS, single; CHARLES NEINE, single.

The Durango Democrat, Durango, CO 17 Jul 1902
__________________

Transcribed by Jenni Lanham.