Almy, Wyoming

Almy was a coal mining camp in Uinta County, Wyoming, near the town of Evanston. In 1881 an explosion killed 38 miners in the Central Pacific Mine, marking the first mine explosion west of the Mississippi River. Another explosion killed 13 in 1886, and a third explosion in Red Canyon in 1895 killed 61 miners, the third worse mining disaster in Wyoming history. Following the second explosion, the Wyoming territorial legislature established the office of the state mining inspector, which subsequently shut down the Almy mines in 1900 after it was deemed too dangerous to mine there.

1881 explosion

On March 4, 1881, gases in the Central Pacific Mine number 3 exploded, killing 38 miners. On March 10, the Cheyenne Weekly Leader reported the disasterHistorical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States Volume 1 Coal Mines - 1810-1958, Mine Safety and Health Administration, 1998] :

A terrific explosion occurred last night between 9and 10 o'clock in the Central Pacific mine, killlng 35Chinamen and 3 white men. The mine was opened in1869 and is nearly worked out. It is mine No. 3,Nos. 1 and 2 having-been worked out. About 200men worked in the mine by day and 8S many as 75at night. Nearly the whole force was Chinamen. Afire had been raging in the mine for 5 years, but ithad been hemmed in by stone walls. The suppositionis that gas accumulated and in some way communicatedwith the fire . The explosion burned the surfaceworks, and the mine slope was set on fire . Fifteenmen were rescued alive from the fourth level. and1 was badly injured from the north air course.

1886 explosion

On the night of January 12, 1886, gas ignited at the Almy Number 4 mine claiming 11 men and 2 boys. The Deseret Evening News in Salt Lake City described the disaster:

The night of January 12 about 25 minutes to 12, the people of the vicinity were startled by a loud report as of thunder, and for a few seconds the sky was illuminated for miles like a bright-yellow sunset. The noise and light, proceeding from the No. 4 mine, was caused by an explosion of gas, the force of which was so terrific as to blow all of the building's above-ground into kindling wood, sending great timbers and rocks three-quarters of a mile. Miners’ houses were' struck and pierced, but the people in them were not seriously injured. Two miners riding down the slope in a trip of empty cars had got down to the 3d level when the explosion broke the cars into fragments and shot them out as from a cannon. The two bodies were blown to pieces and were found a considerable distance from the portal. Eleven men and two boys were said to have been in the mine, and all were killed. (Rescue' crews forced their way into the mine and placed temporary brattices to permit recovery of the bodies. The last was brought, out January l5. The explosion was thought to have originated in the 13th level on the south side of the mine, when gas was ignited by a miner's open light. Although the mine had been troubled with gas the fireboss had reported it clear at 6 a. m. on the day of the explosion.

1895 explosion

On March 20, 1895, an explosion at the Red Canyon mine near Almy killed 61 miners. It is the third worse disaster in Wyoming history, exceeded only by disasters in Kemmerer and Hanna.

References

External links

* [http://www.untraveledroad.com/USA/Wyoming/Uinta/H89/21ESign.htm Almy Historical Marker on Highway 89 near Evanston]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D0CE7D6123FEE3ABC4D53DFB566838A699FDE Disaster in a Western Mine] , New York Times, March 5, 1881
* [http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/ROBERTSHISTORY/coal_safety_buffalo_bones.htm The Quest for Mine Safety in Wyoming’s Coal Industry] , Phil Roberts, Department of History, University of Wyoming