Imagine Nancy Trice's surprise when, while researching her Colorado ancestors, she came across this article on the Webster County Duvin mine disaster in a 1939 Colorado newspaper. Thanks, Nancy, for always remembering Webster County.

KENTUCKY MINE TOLL MAY REACH 28; 'ONE CHANCE IN THOUSAND' FOR NINE MEN

Exhausted Rescue Workers Replaced by New Squad; if Miners 'Sealed In' Back of Airtight Door,
They May Live for Days.

PROVIDENCE, Ky., July 15 (AP) --John Daniels, Kentucky's chief mine inspector, expressed fear tonight the death toll in a mine-gas explosion would reach 28 as hope waned that nine of the men would be found alive. It previously was announced 19 miners were dead.

"With all that carbon monoxide gas down there," Daniels said, "it doesn't look as tho they have any chance."

The men were entombed last night 200 to 250 feet underground and approximately two miles back from the surface entrance.

Daniels made the statement after conferring with 12 exhausted rescue workers who were brought to the surface late today at the Duvin Coal company's soft coal mine about a mile north of here. One of the squadmen was overcome before the party emerged, but soon was revived. Another squad immediately was sent down to carry on the rescue efforts in the pit, which was described as being filled with "bad air."

Earlier, F.V. Ruckman, president of the company, said that 19 miners had perished but expressed belief the remaining nine might be saved. He said if they had "sealed in" behind an airtight door, they might have enough "good" air to last "three or four days."

Fred Ferguson, director of the Indiana bureau of mines, assisting in rescue work, however, predicted the nine had "only one chance in a thousand" of being found alive.

SECOND DISASTER IN 10 DAYS

The disaster was the second to strike Kentucky within 10 days. At least 71 persons drowned in "flash" floods in the eastern Kentucky mountains last week. Search is continuing there for approximately 10 missing persons.

Ruckman said the cause of the blast was undetermined but other mine people expressed belief it was touched off by some kind of a spark.

Ten other of the 38 miners working in the mine, the third largest in western Kentucky at the time of the mishap, were rescued. They suffered from "bad air" but none was hurt seriously.

The 19 dead were found at or near the scene of the explosion about 12,000 feet from the shaft entrance and approximately 250 feet underground.

The nine still trapped were working in another section about 50 feet above the 19 while the remainder of the 28 were scattered from the shaft entrance back along various levels some distance from the explosion site.

Ed Gold, 52, who went down with the first rescue party and worked without relief for 15 hours, disclosed bodies of some of the victims had been maimed. He said, however, no timbers or slate had fallen.

Gold, whose brother, Arch, is among the nine being sought, said the rescuers came across nine bodies at the scene of the accident but did not attempt to reach the second group of 10 nearby as the squadmen were certain they too were dead and wanted to push on to the third group.

THRU ABANDONED ENTRY

Gold said the party, in returning to the surface, fought three hours to get out, wading thru water up their knees and encountering "bad air". They finally escaped thru an abandoned passageway.

Ruckman said none of the bodies had been brought to the surface and probably would not be until after the nine trapped men had been reached by the gas-masked rescue squads.

He said he was informed 19 were dead by James Fugate of the rescue party.

"Did they find them?" Ruckman was asked. "Yes, they found some of them." "Did they find all the men?" "They didn't have to," he replied.

No formal announcement was made 18 miners were found dead, but word passed quickly among the crowd of several hundred spectators, who spent most of the day huddled under shelters to escape intermittent rains.

As the news spread, there were a few wails from women - wives, mothers or sisters of the victims - but generally the crowd, mostly relatives or friend of the miners, was stoical.

Rescue parties had to work slowly. It was necessary to repair punctures or "short circuits" in the air ventilating system caused by the explosion, so that the poisonous "black damp" gas might be expelled from the mine.

The accident occurred about 7 p.m. (CST) yesterday, 2 1/2 hours after the crew had entered the pit, one mile north of this western Kentucky town of 5,000.

First report of the blast came from Dennis Walker, 20, who with two companions, was knocked down and "rolled over" by the concussion. Walker, who fared better than the other two, dragged them to safety and then telephoned the mine office.

Soon mine rescue experts and workers with apparatus were hurring here from nearby towns and neighboring states.

Sunday Gazette & Telegraph
Colorado, Springs, Colorado
Sunday, July 16, 1939.