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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 19, 1913
New Castle, Colorado – 37 Coal Miners Dead in Explosion at Vulcan Mine
From Grand Junction (Colorado) Daily Sentinel of December 17, 1913:
…..Among the mine victims of Tuesday are many of the boys who were made fatherless by the previous disaster [Feb. 18, 1896]. Widowed Mothers forced them into the mine again……
“Thank God I am a farmer,” said A. S. Tibbits at 2 o’clock this morning to a Sentinel reporter, after having spent the day in rescue work at the mine.
“I was one of the helpers in the Vulcan disaster eighteen years ago, but this explosion wrecked the mine a dozen times as bad.”…..
From the El Paso Herald December 16, 1913:
EXPLOSION ENTOMBS 40 COLORADO MINERS
———-New Castle, Colo., Dec. 16.-An explosion in the Vulcan mine of the Rocky Mountain Fuel company, one and a half miles east of here, at 10:20 this morning, entombed mine foreman L. L. Crawford, fire boss L. Walters and at least 30 miners. This estimate was based on a hurried check of the company’s rolls. Some officials expressed the belief that the number in the workings might be increased to 40. Only about eight of the men in the mine are foreigners.
Believe Six Men are Dead.
Charles S. Meerdink, mine superintendent, with five companions equipped with helmets at once began to explore the workings. According to mine officials, six men are known to have been working near the explosion and are believed to have been killed.
Hasty examination led to the belief that the east entry was comparatively free from the force of the explosion, and this led to expressions of hope that some of the men employed there would be found alive.
Explosion Wrecks Fan.
The force of the explosion was sufficient to wreck the fan, but rescuers went several hundred feet from the portal before encountering any serious obstruction in the main tunnel.
Miners from the Colorado Fuel and Iron company’s mine at Spring Gulch, 12 miles distant, equipped with helmets, started at once for New Castle to aid in the rescue work. The mine is of the slope variety.
At 1 o’clock it was reported that a number of bodies had been located by helmet men. No trace of fire inside the mine has been found.
[Emphasis added.]
From The New York Times of December 17, 1913:
38 DEAD IN COAL MINE
———-
Fire Follows Explosion in Colorado Pit
-Rescuers Save Two.NEWCASTLE, Col., Dec. 16.-Thirty-eight men, all married and all save eight of them Americans, were killed in the Vulcan Mine of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company to-day by an explosion of coal dust.
A number of men were in the upper workings, which are reached by a long incline from the tipple, the mine being of the sloping variety. These hastened to the main tunnel, and are said to have been met by a second explosion.
Father J. P. Carrigan of Glenwood Springs, near here, rushed into the smoking pit with the first rescuers in search of the dying, to whom he might administer the last rites of the Church. Two miners were rescued after the underground workings had caught fire.
Before sundown the mine had been cleared of gas, and a thorough exploration of the wrecked workings was made, but the men in charge of the rescue work said it probably would be a day or two before the bodies could be recovered.
The Vulcan Mine was only about a year old, and was equipped with modern safety devices. It is believed that the explosion was caused by an accumulation of dust in the western portion of the mine, where work had practically been abandoned. Most of the dead were found in the eastern workings, to which the explosion was communicated.
This Fall employees of the mine were called out on strike by the United Mine Workers of America, but some of them had gone back to work. The other victims of to-day’s disaster were strikebreakers.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Necklace of Blood, Dnv ULB p6, Dec 20, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1913-12-20/ed-1/seq-6/
The Daily Sentinel
(Grand Junction, Colorado)
-Dec 17, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1913-12-17/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86066870/1913-12-17/ed-1/seq-6/
El Paso Herald
(El Paso, Texas)
-of Dec 16, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88084272/1913-12-16/ed-1/seq-1/
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-of Dec 17, 1913
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20402927/
See also:
United Labor Bulletin
(Denver, Colorado)
-Dec 20, 1913
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91052295/1913-12-20/ed-1/seq-1/
Secretary-Treasurer Ed L. Doyle of the United Mine Workers [District 15], following out an established rule of the organization in such cases, regardless of the victims not being members of the organization telegraphed $300 to Andrea D’Andrea, an organizer at Glenwood Springs, for immediate relief of families of the victims.
This last Colorado mine disaster made 16 widows and 34 orphan children as a further penalty for non-enforcement of the state mining laws.
[Emphasis added.]
Rocky Mountain Fuel Company
Vulcan Mine Explosion
New Castle, Garfield County, Colorado
December 16, 1913
No. Killed – 37
https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/vulcan_1913_news_only.htm
More on Vulcan Mine Disasters Near New Castle, Colorado:
On 18 February 1896, the Vulcan Mine exploded, killing 49 men. Townspeople in New Castle rushed into the streets and miners from neighboring mines hurried to help. The mine was flooded to staunch the fire and then closed. It was reopened under new ownership some years later, only to have another tragedy strike. On 13 December 1913 [December 16, 1913], the Vulcan Mine exploded again, this time killing 37 miners. Both times, miners had complained about high concentrations of methane gas before the explosions, but dubious inspections had kept the mines open.
[Emphasis added.]
From:
“New Castle, Colorado: A Coal Town That Survives Despite Disaster”
(Note incorrect date, the explosion in 1913 was on Dec 16th.)
https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/new-castle-colorado-coal-town-survives-despite-disaster
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad
Vulcan Mine Explosion
New Castle, Garfield County, Colorado
February 18, 1896
No. Killed – 49
https://usminedisasters.miningquiz.com/saxsewell/vulcan_news_only.htm
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