Disaster Averted at the Franklin Mines
A broken cable sends an empty coal car plunging into the depths of a flooded mine, barely missing a catastrophic accident for the workers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Work in the Franklin mines has been interrupted during the past week by water which has flooded the pit and exceeded the capacity of the pump. On Sunday afternoon, an alarm was created in the camp by a shock and rattling of machinery at the top of the incline. Superintendent Williams rushed to the scene to find that the cable had detached from a car, which then plunged with lightning speed into the water at the bottom of the mine. Fortunately, the car contained no men and the miners had already left the gangway, preventing a certain catastrophe.
“The car had plunged with lightning speed into the water at the bottom of the mine.”
Mining accidents were a constant, terrifying reality of the Pacific Northwest's industrial boom. While the Franklin mines are now closed and the landscape reclaimed, stories like this illustrate the perilous conditions that led to the early labor organizing in the region's coal camps.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.