News from nearby Crystal Falls on September 30:
“With a terrific rush the waters of the Michigan River broke through a bed weakened by mining into the Mansfield mine, drowning twenty-eight men who were at work directly under the cave-in. There were 46 men in the mine when the accident occurred, but eighteen of them who were working in the lower levels managed to escape. None of the bodies have been recovered.”
“When the night shift went on duty it was noticed that more water was coming into the mine than usual, but no alarm was felt by those at the pumps as they managed to keep the ‘drifts’ free. The miners pursued their work as on every night when they started in to pass the 12 hours underground earning bread for their families. Suddenly, a few minutes after nine, there was a loud report and an overpowering rush of water, and the men felt themselves being overwhelmed by an avalanche of mud, ore and water.
“So fast came the flood that it is doubtful whether the men on the upper levels had time to drop their tools and run for their lives to the old shaft. Had any of them reached the perpendicular opening, however, it would have availed them nothing for the shaft known as ‘Old No. 1’ collapsed as soon as the water reached and undermined its base. This occurred at precisely half past nine, and it was then known to those in charge of the mine that the men in the upper level had been trapped and drowned like rats by an accident which had long been expected.”
Horrible. I can’t imagine. These men were hard-working husbands and fathers, of Cornish, Italian, Scandinavian, Finnish, and Irish descent, working brutal twelve-hour shifts in horrendous conditions just to keep their families alive.
Around twenty years after this accident, the mine closed and shortly after that, the town dried up. Another UP ghost town.
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