Tragic Recovery at Ashford Mine
After four days, searchers reach the body of a miner trapped by a gas explosion.
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.
The body of Jack Norell, the miner who was entombed 4,000 feet underground by an explosion of fire damp in the coal mine of the Northwestern Coal Iron company at Ashford, last Friday morning, was recovered yesterday. It was found lying under a pile of rocks and mine beams. Hope of finding the entombed man alive was abandoned Monday, when the rescue party was driven back by gas and temporarily delayed in its work. Coroner Shaver, who was on the ground at the time the body was recovered, held an inquest at once and the jury returned a verdict finding that death was purely accidental and fixing no blame. The Odd Fellows of Elbe will have charge of the funeral of Norell.
“Hope of finding the entombed man alive was abandoned Monday, when the rescue party was driven back by gas.”
Mine safety was a brutal reality of early Washington industry, and this incident in Ashford captures the danger workers faced daily. It serves as a reminder of the human cost that powered early Pacific Northwest expansion.
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