"A Look Back"

The Stories presented here are about people and events during the early days when this corner of Colorado was first settled.

Tragedy At Wadge Mine Part 6
By Chuck Mack

After writing the original story of The Tragedy at the Wadge Mine several years ago, and then recently digging up all the facts I could from the newspaper articles to bolster the story, I still didn't think I had the story complete. In the back of my mind even at the time of writing the original story I kept thinking there was great controversy over the explosion, in the weeks and months following the blast, I knew it was the main topic of discussion from just about anyone you would talk to from Mount Harris. However I couldn't remember enough details about all the controversy to enter it into my story. So by golly, I said to myself after digging into the newspaper articles, "I am going to search the newspaper articles that were written in the weeks and months after the explosion, until I find more on the explosion or else finally give up in despair". Well, as luck would have it I didn't have to give up in despair; it took a lot of searching through the microfilm files of the Steamboat Pilot, and finally I found the article shown below, and now I think we know about all of the story on the (Tragedy at the Wadge Mine). However before we read on down to the final countdown lets read a couple of other tidbits that surfaced while I was searching.

The Steamboat Pilot. Haybro Women Praised by Bureau of Mine. Heroic conduct of four Haybro women following the disastrous explosion in the Wadge Coalmine near Mount Harris, which took 34 lives was praised in Denver by W. H. Forbes, engineer in charge of the U. S. bureau of mines there. The four women Mrs. Minnie Daniels, Mrs. Lillian Bryant, Mrs. Alta Marino, and Mrs. Doherty Temple, were credited by Mr. Forbes with alleviating much of the anguish and suffering which accompanied the tragedy. Soon after the explosion the women arrived at Mount Harris and assisted in compiling a casualty list, he said each woman undertook the task of visiting the families of the victims, notifying them of the explosion and making arrangements for providing them, clothing and other material comforts. (See notation at end of articles). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Steamboat Pilot: Mount Harris Column By Mrs. James Clifton. Card of Thanks. The Victor American Fuel Company, Henry Johnson, superintendent, and all the people of the Wadge mine, want to thank all the people of the Pinnacle mine, the Perry mine, the Moffat mine the Keystone mine, the (Hayden Brothers Coal Company "Haybro mine"), and the people of Oak Creek, Steamboat Springs, the (Colorado Utah Coal Company "Mount Harris mine"), Hayden, Craig, the doctors, the Red Cross and all the businesses and social organizations in the neighboring towns for their wonderful help and assistance in our recent disaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And now we can get on to the final phase of the tragedy at the Wadge mine.

The Steamboat Pilot, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Thursday, April 9th, 1942. Gross Incompetence Charged in Fatal Mind Blast at Wadge Mine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gross incompetence on the part of all officials responsible for the underground operations of the mine was charged Saturday in a report filed by Thomas Allen, chief state coal mine inspector, covering the causes of the explosion on January 27 at the Victor American Fuel Company Wadge Coalmine at Mount Harris in Routt County, Colorado, in which 34 miners lost their lives. Allen announced that certificates of competency, entitling three underground officials declared to be partly responsible for the disaster, to act as mine officials had been suspended by his office. His report also declared that an assistant foreman who was killed was directly responsible for the explosion. Those who certificates were suspended were Henry Johnson, foreman, Clyde Hurst, assistant foreman, and William Perry, a fire boss. Tony Skufka, an assistant foreman who had charge of the shift the workers where the explosion occurred was declared to have been responsible for the final action causing the explosion by directing a shot fire, William Blount, to drive a large quantity of highly explosive gas, with a blower fan into an area of the mine where men and machinery were working. Both Skufka and Blount, who was also found negligent in the report, were killed in the explosion of the liberated gas which swept through four cross entries deep in the mine. "A study of the available information regarding operation practices in the Wadge mine", the report said. "Shows the disaster was a result of many contributing conditions all leading to the final cause." "The cause was the ignition of a body of explosive gases which was being cleared out of a working place by a blower fan while electrical machinery was being operated on the return side of the fouled place". "The fact that explosive gases were given off in considerable quantities from all the places closely approaching the fault was known to all underground officials". "The general superintendent should have been aware of this extreme danger, as well as the regular underground staff, because he made periodical visits for supervision". "The very serious condition from this danger existing was shown by the daily record of the fire boss which stated he had detected explosive gas in some of the working places practically every one of the 17 days that the mine worked from January 1st 1942 up to and including January 27". "The fact that this condition was not investigated and proper steps taken to guard against the hazard shows gross incompetence on the part of all the underground officials". "There is no evidence that blasting took any part in causing the explosion, the evidence shows that no explosives or detonators were used in the mine for several months". "Approved safety lamps were supposed to be used by all officials for gas detecting purposes. However it was shown that the officials with the exception of the fire boss and shot fire were not in the habit of carrying safety lamps at all times when they were making their rounds of working places". "There appeared to be no doubt but that the assistant mine foreman (Skufka) knew of the conditions in the crosscut area where the gas was released, and that he instructed the shot fire blow man (Blount) to clear the fouled place of the accumulation of the explosive gases with the use of a blower fan to move the fouled air and gases". "The explosion would have been prevented if the assistant mine foreman and the shot fire had withdrawn the men on the return side of the gas accumulation and had cut off all the electric power lines leading into the same area, and not attempted to clear the place by placing the blower fan in the action where it was found". "The condition was so dangers that it should have been reported to the mine foreman immediately after it was discovered". "With this information, the mine foreman would have had to establish a positive air current from the north intake into the district and every other place in the district. Line brattices (temporary barriers) would have had to be erected in the badly fouled area. No work of any kind should then have been permitted in any place on the return side of the crosscut until the heavy gas feeders in the face had exhausted themselves". "The cross cuts should from then on should have been abandoned as being too dangers to work and for having no value excepting for what little coal could have been obtained from it". "The evidence reveals incompetence on the part of the underground officials. They were generally lax in the enforcement of safety practices. All of them knew of the dangers arising from the known fact that explosive gas in quantity was released in any workings approaching the fault. Yet the arrangement and care of ventilation was not given anything but casual attention". "Allen closed his report by expressing thanks to the many persons who assisted in the recovery work and care of the grief stricken dependence of the victims. He also gave special recognition to Joe Gall, the coal miner who led his group of three fellow workers outside the mine safely. (Notations by Chuck Mack) (It was at the Haybro mine, owned and operated by the Hayden Brothers Coal Company where I first started my coal mining career in the year 1947. Al Daniels was mine superintendent, his brother Bill Daniels was a mine foreman, I'm thinking that Minnie Daniels was the wife of Al Daniels. The Haybro mine was located four or five miles from Oak Creek, on the Steamboat to Oak Creek Highway. The Haybro mine ceased operation in the spring of 1950, and that fall I went to work for the ColoWyo Coal Company in their Redwing mine, located just south of the now abandoned town of Axial, Colorado, about halfway between Craig, and Meeker. I would work at their Redwing mine for the next twenty-three-plus years, until their Redwing mine ceased production and was closed in 1974. And then I went to work for Peabody Coal Company, at their Seneca mine near Hayden, and that is where I finished my nearly 46 years coal mining career) (Methane Gas or “Fire Damp”, as it is sometimes referred to in coalmines, is highly explosive when it’s mixed in with oxygen in the air. A mixture of from 5 to 15% methane mixed in with the mine air could cause a violent explosion if there was a source of ignition. Methane is odorless and tasteless so its presence would not be detected. That is why miners like, fireboss, shot firer, foremen, and all supervisors were required to carry an approved “safety lamp”. We homeowners enjoy the comfort of this gas to cook our meals and heat our homes. It is known to us as "natural gas". Before it is piped into our homes a smelly substance is added to it, so it has a definite smell, so in case of a leak its presence can be detected. However as this gas is unleashed in its natural state during the mining process it is odorless and colorless. Being lighter than air, it rises to the top, where it gathers in pockets just waiting for the right conditions to set it off in a deadly fury. It takes no more than a spark from a miner's pick to start an explosion. Methane can be detected by using a safety lamp. During my mining career I was employed at the ColoWyo Mine for several years in the capacity of fireboss, and my duties were going into the mine before any other miners, and checking for any dangerous condition, including any buildup of methane gas. I would have to report to the surface, either in person or by telephone, and give the "all-clear", signal before any other miners were allowed to enter the mine. To check for any pockets of methane I would stand on a pile of coal at the face, and slowly raise my safety lamp towards the roof. If any methane was present, the flame in the safety lamp would start to get a cap or a glow at the top of the flame. The higher the cap, the higher percentage of methane would be present. Now here is where the name “safety lamp” comes into play: a safety lamp is constructed with two separate wire gauze screens enclosed in a glass chimney. The two wire gauzes have a cooling effect on the flame; in other words they cooled the flame of the safety lamp below the ignition point of the methane gas. Any type of open flame would set a pocket of methane gas off with a bang. Our coal seams were formed millions and millions of years ago. Coal is made out of rotted and decayed plant life. A seam of coal would start its life as swamp or marsh lands, and finally after millions of years the growing, dying, and decaying plant life was compacted into a vein of coal. Of course methane gas is produced in the same manner, and that is why there is almost always methane gas present in a coal seam. A fault in a seam of coal could be from many factors. It could have been an island of rock or shale that was in the swamp or marsh as the coal seam was being formed, or it could have been a rock formation that was thrust through the coal millions of years later when the mountains were being formed. Regardless of how it got there, a fault is usually a pocket of rock, or shale that somehow becomes part of the coal seam. If the materials the fault is made from were porous it would act just like a sponge, absorbing the methane gas from the coal seam. And then when coal was taken away from the fault in the mining process, the fault would release its absorbed methane gas in great quantities. The reason there would be no evidence of blasting or using explosives in the mining of coal would simply be; the Wadge mine used “Cardox”. Cardox were made of heavy two and one-half inch pipe, about 3 feet in length. They had a rounded, slotted, removable snout on one end and a pipe plug looking affair, with a place to hook an electrical blasting wire on the other. They were filled under pressure with carbon dioxide gas. A fast burning powder primer was first placed in the plug end. Cardox didn't explode like dynamite. The primer would burn inside the pipe and build up pressure. The seal on the snout end would blow out and the violently escaping gas would come out from the slotted snout with enough force to break up the coal. They didn't create any sparks or flame so they were safe to use in explosive atmospheres that are so often found in coalmines. This wasn't the only reason Cardox was used in the mine however. At that time most of the coal was sold on the domestic market as coal to heat homes. The biggest seller was lump coal. Shooting with Cardox made the biggest, prettiest lump coal imaginable.