The Bank That Ate Seven Men: A Collapse in the Blue Point Claim
In a gruesome industrial accident on April 13, 1877, a bank of earth at the Blue Point mine in Smartsville buried seven miners alive and wounded six more, halting business for miles around.
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.
SMARTSVILLE, April 13.—At one o'clock P.M. yesterday a bank in the Blue Point claim fell without warning, covering up and killing outright seven men and wounding six more, some of them badly. The names of the killed are H. F. Henderson, J. W. Monk, Michael Sweazley, David H. Smith, M. L. Williams, Thomas McDonald and Samuel Sherman. The injured are Michael and Thomas Conboy, Michael Kinnin, Jas Kelly, Vert Honlton, and Michael Brosnan. The injured were taken out and cared for as soon as possible and then water was turned on to wash out the bodies, which was not accomplished until late in the afternoon today. Business is entirely suspended to pay respect to the funeral observances which take place this forenoon from the Protestant and Catholic Churches, and is attended by people for miles around. Only two men escaped without injury out of fifteen.
This 1877 disaster highlights the extreme physical dangers of early Pacific Northwest mining, where 'banking' (the collapse of mine shafts or tunnels) was a constant threat with little safety regulation. It resonates with modern concerns about industrial safety and the human cost of resource extraction, reminding us that before labor unions and OSHA, miners faced these collapses alone.
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