Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1884 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

Steady rains throughout the middle sections of California have materially improved the condition of the grain crop. The fruit crop of Southern California will probably be the best on record. All of the bodies of the fifty-nine men killed by the explosion in the ’Crested Butte mine, near Gunnison, Col., were recovered within three days after the fatal disaster. Ten bodies were found in the main entry. These had evidently been subjected to the full force of the blast, and were terribly burned and blackened; in several oases arms and legs were found to have been broken and bodies otherwise mutilated. In this entry also the carcasses of nine mules, and a large number of empty coal cars, whlob had been battered out of all shape, were found. In chamber No. 1 no bodies were found, but the workmen, pursuing their search a little farther, came upon eighteen corpses, almost In a heap, in an air-passage leading to the up-cut, near the entrance. The doomed men, alarmed but not Injured by the explosion, had evidently attempted to reach the furnace-room, and had been overcome by the after-damp when within 300 feet of the room. Fifty feet further back six more bodies wore found. All had evidently been suffocated. Some had tied handkerchiefs over their mouths. In chamber No 3, and in a passageway in the immediate vicinity, twenty-five more bodies were discovered. Many had their arms and legs broken, their skulls crushed In, and their clothing burned. In many cases the hair was burned from their heads, and all the skin was burned off the face and other exposed portions of the body, leaving an utterly unrecognizable mass of raw and bleeding flesh. The appearance of these bodies was horrible beyond description. None of them oould be recognized. Many of the faces had coal dnfet ground into them until they were as black as the coal itself. The Colorado Coal and Iron Company bore all the funeral expenses, and has made ample provision for the needy families of the deceased. The cause of the accident cannot be definitely told. The mine has been subject to gas, but the owners had done everything possible to overcome this by the use of a )l the «rm nwwt approven appliances for mine ventilation, and it was considered one of the best ventilated mines in country.