Starkville, Colorado
Starkville Mine Explosion
October 8, 1910
NOT MUCH HOPE LEFT
ENTOMBED MINERS IN COLORADO HOPELESSLY WALLED
IN.
GLOOM SETTLES AROUND PIT
NOTHING BRIGHT IN TIDINGS OF THE RESCUE PARTY.
Nine Hundred Feet Nearest Point Reached to
Imprisoned Men- Poisonous Gases Found by
Searchers.
STARKVILLE, Col., Oct. 10. – As darkness
settled tonight over the entrance to the
Starkville mine, the hope that had buoyed up the
watchers at the pit mouth through out the day
that some of the fifty or more men entombed
there would be found alive
grew
faint and gloom settles again over the silent
crowd. This morning the experts at the head of
the rescue party were confident that some of the
men walled in by Saturday night’s explosion were
alive. They believed the portable fan forcing
pure air into the workings would keep the men
alive, until they could be reached, but as the
day rescue party stumbled slowly out of the
slope tonight one glance at their faces told the
watchers that hope was almost vain.
Get Within 900 Feet.
After a day of hard work in the face of constant
peril, the rescue party penetrated the mine
working nearly 12,000 feet, or within 9—feet of
the men imprisoned nearest the main entrance,
instead of finding the mine clear of debris and
afterdamp at this point, the workings were found
be badly wrecked, and poisonous gases were again
encountered. The leaders would not consent to
the rescuers going further until sufficient
fresh air had been fanned into the mine to
insure safety. It was decided to retreat to the
open, leaving the portable fan going until the
interior of the mine was cleared of the deadly
afterdamp.
Throughout the day the rescue party pushed
forward with extreme care, lest it should be
suddenly overwhelmed by bad air.
After passing the principal crosscut which
connects the old and new slopes, and which was
used as the main haulageway [sic], the party
came upon cave-ins, plainly indicating the
coarse of the explosion. Ten thousand feet from
the entrance, the place where a fan had been
operated before the explosion was badly damaged.
The fan was torn to pieces and scattered
hundreds of feet. The 1,200 pound motor had been
thrown fifty feet from its bed. The party was
compelled to stop and make repairs. Brattices
were erected and in the meantime a dog which had
accompanied the party wandered aimlessly ahead.
It was found later laying stretched upon the
floor overcome by afterdamp.
Evidence of Afterdamp.
When the rescue party renewed its journey inward
it branched off for a short distance, and then
took a southerly coarse toward the spot where
the pickmen were supposed to have been working
Saturday. The dog’s experience proved valuable,
and reconnoitering parties were selected from
the main party and sent ahead to test the air.
Those scouting parties reported that afterdamp
was notable in all the short cuts and also in
the main slope. General
Manager Weitzel was given this
information by portable telephone and ordered
the men out of the mine until the air could be
improved.
While the night shift was waiting to be sent
inside the mine a gang was put to work
installing a blower at the mouth of the air
shaft to prevent the sudden stoppage of air
supply by the failure of the portable fan.
Several times during the day this fan stopped
working but was speedily repaired. All day long
the hills facing the mine were dotted with
groups of women and children waiting for news of
the entombed men.
As the silent nods of the rescue party told that
no bodies were expected to be found until late
tonight the mothers gathered their little ones
and settled to wait and watch through the night.
State Mine Inspector
Jones was the last of the rescuers to
come out. He said that he felt sure the rescuers
would come upon bodies tonight.
Claims Men Can be Alive.
It is known that at least eleven men in the min
when the explosion occurred Saturday night are
at least a mile from the first cross-cut through
which the bad air in the Starkville mine is
supposed to be floating into her sister mine on
the opposite side of the hill.
“Without any stretch of the imagination,”
said Inspector Jones today, “these men could be
alive and perfectly safe unless a cave-in
crushed out their lives, of the black damp had
reached them while fans were being set up.”
Desperate dashes in the face of death gave
way to more effective and infinitely less
dangerous methods of rescue work today. As an an
[sic] indication of the thoroughness with which
the rescue work was progressing, the stringing
of a telephone wire was promptly begun as soon
as equipment arrived. The builders soon had
caught up with the rescue party and
District Superintendent
James Thompson of the Colorado Fuel
and Iron company, in charge of rescue work for
the company, telephoned out the glad tidings
that all was well with the rescue party and that
ground was being covered rapidly.
A record of the list of employees at the
Starkville mines adds four names to the list of
missing. These make a total of fifty-five
missing, according to the list of the company.
Word came out of the mouth of the mine at
midnight that the portable fan near the entrance
to the east slope, or short-cut of the mine, was
working with precision, and the deadly afterdamp
which threatened the lives of the rescuers and
drove them from the slope yesterday had been
scattered away from the fan, and the belief was
expressed that the interior would be gradually
relieved of this menace.
Renewed Efforts to Fine Men.
Today renewed efforts to reach the entombed men
were inaugurated, part of the plan being, it was
announced to find a path to where they are
believed to be huddled together, in death, or
perhaps, if still alive, enclosed in a small
space selected by themselves and quickly shut
off by them, when the explosion came to protect
themselves from the black damp, which invariably
follows explosions in coal mines. The later
hypothesis is based, of course, upon the
probability that the men were not instantly
killed by the explosion, or suffocated
afterwards by deadly gases.
Every plan that the ingenuity of experts can
summon is being put into use to penetrate the
black depths of the mine and reach the
imprisoned men, who have been mourned as dead
for twenty-four hours.
David Obosh,
one of the oldest Starkville miners in point of
service, astonished his friends by appearing in
camp last night uninjured. According to Obosh’s
own story it was by the merest chance that he
escaped the calamity that overwhelmed the mine
last Saturday night. Four [sic] fourteen years
Obosh has been employed at Starkville and for
the last six months he has not missed a shift.
Saturday night he went to Trinidad with a
party of friends. Before the hour of the
explosion Obosh had become so saturated with
conviviality that he sought seclusion and slept
in an unaccustomed retreat, and it was not until
late last night that he returned to Starkville
and his accustomed haunts.
A pitiable case is the probable death of
Francis Goggins,
the only support of a twice widowed mother. The
aged woman is the mother of fourteen children.
Her first husband was killed at Grey Creek
eleven years ago and the second met death at
Starkville, two years ago. Only one son, too
young to work, and three daughters survive.
Mrs. John Childs,
an aged woman and her daughter-in-law,
Mrs. C. Childs,
aided an emergency boarding house close to
the mine portal. The elder child, an old time
engineer, has remained near the mine since the
explosion and is frequently consulted by
officials and men engaged in rescue work.
Pathetic Incident Brought Out.
A pathetic incident came to light today when a
message sent to the wife and children of
Anton Lysczarz in Poland that he had
probably been killed in the explosion. Mrs.
Lysczarz was on the point of starting to America
to join her husband. Three months ago, after
countless discouragements, Lysczarz had got
together enough money to pay her passage. He was
badly injured in another accident and his was
compelled to sell the ticket to secure medical
attention. The passage money was sent to Poland
a second time but a few days ago.
One of the few watchers allowed within the
lines about the pit mouth was
Jack Greet, a
white-haired old man, whose son,
Frank, is
among the missing.
Frank Greet came to Starkville a few
days ago to care for his father, and was in
charge of one of the electric coal trains. He
had taken his train into the main slope but a
few seconds before the explosion, and his father
pleases to be allowed to search the main slope
for his son’s body. Moved by his distress,
State Mine Inspector Jones
late last nigh ventured among the wreckage of
the main slope. In a moment Jones reappeared and
told the old man that any attempt to reach his
son from that direction was hopeless. Greet
walked slowly back to the timbers, where he has
kept vigil since the explosion. All efforts to
induce him to go home were fruitless, and he was
allowed to remaining within the lines.
The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, NE 11
Oct 1910

Scenes at Mine
Frank Greet,
19 years of age, who is among the missing, was
employed as a motor driver. His duty was to
operate the motor which drew trains of coal cars
out of the haulage way. When his aged father,
Frank Greet,
learned of the explosion, he hastened to the
mine a mile and a half away from his home, and
he started to enter the slope to search for his
son.
He was stopped by a guard who explained that
he could not possible get in and out. “Let me
go,” he cried, as tears ran down his wrinkled
face. “I know where my son is, and I will bring
him out. He is not far in the mine and must be
alive. Please let me go.”
He was led away weeping.
A polish woman, whose husband is among the
missing, called at the home of
Superintendent Wilson
and bewailed her loss in broken English to the
wife of the superintendent.
“My man is gone, I kill myself,” she screamed
and drew a revolver from the folds of her dress.
“I will fight and it will kill my children.”
Mr. Wilson detained her and she explained
that she had children and she had no food.
Mrs. Wilson
prepared a basket of food and sent the woman to
her home.
The list of 51 is missing prepared by the man
who canv [illegible] the camp today is:
John Keimle,
Pole, 31; Gregory
Desialmola, Russian, 28;
Felice Portu
(no data); Top
Upperdine, American, 34, wife and two
children; Albert Hay,
Pole, 25, single;
Baronofsky,
Pole, 22, single; Josa
Zapransky, Pole, 28; wife and three
children; Joe Fratansky,
Pole, 40, wife and four children;
Frank Frankl,
Pole; wife; John
Graftie, Pole, single;
Nicoli Eurouzski,
Pole, wife and three children;
Joe Tebrowitski,
Pole, 35; wife and three children;
Francois Goggins,
American, 16; Emil
Harowath, Servian, 31: wife and one
child; Joe Yeorwich,
Servian, single; Frank
Kleml, Pole, 19, single;
John Chuse, Pole, 37, wife and three
children; Antone
Maiacone, Italian, 24, wife and one
child; Guigo Giacomo,
Italian, 24, wife and two children;
Vit Nezlo,
Pole, 38, wife and three children;
Tony Voscher,
Pole, 35, wife and three children;
Louis, Pole,
37, wife and two children;
John Lebinsky, Pole, 21, single;
Jim Zimpah,
Pole, 22, married; Pete
Vianco, Pole, 32, wife and two
children; Mike Korvoric,
Pole, 34, wife and four children;
Lawrence Kohara,
Pole, 50, wife and six children;
Frank Ueachle,
Pole, 27, single; John
Tobias, Pole, 31, wife and three
children; John Mehora,
Pole, 45, wife and three children;
Rudolph Kempeny,
Pole, 22, single;
Rudolph Pottasic, Pole, 29, wife
and three children;
Luke Upperdine, American, 50, wife
and five children;
Frank Brock, Pole, 37, single;
Paul Tusnic, Pole, 40, single;
Henry Lenon,
colored, 31, married;
Fred Seppe,
American, 35, single;
Umberto Sante Cruz, Italian, single;
Savior Santacruz,
Italian, 23, single;
Esquala Gallegos, Mexican, 40,
single; Clario Lopez,
Mexican, single;
Alexander Gallegos,
Mexican, 19, single;
Anton Malacome, Italian, 37, wife;
Giulermo Baldosari,
Italian, 25, married;
Stephano Mussatt, Italian, wife and
three children; Joe
Selano, Italian, 24, single;
John Fanoro,
Italian, 20, single;
Tom Tomozino, Italian, 35, wife and
three children; Wilbur
Headquist, American, 20, single.
Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV 10 Oct 1910
Transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!

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