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The Scofield Disaster:
Chain reactionsWhat caused the terrible explosion? No one was ever exactly sure.
There was practically no gas in the mine, so the chances of hitting a pocket and igniting it were nil.
But the mine had recently received a new contract to supply 2,000 tons of coal per day to the U.S. Navy. Did the miners take too much powder into the mine to speed up work to meet that quota? That was one theory.
Another was that some miners were going to "shoot down some coal," but the wall between where they were working and the next chamber was thinner than they thought and it blew down, igniting coal dust in the next chamber.
Regardless of what caused the initial spark, there was for sure too much coal dust in the mine. And once some was ignited, it set off a series of chain reactions that spread through the mine in hopeless microseconds.
Had the mine been sprinkled down weekly, investigators said later, the explosion could have been avoided. But the lack of natural gases in the mine had lulled them into a false sense of security.
"The explosion has taught Utah a lesson," said the Deseret News, "but the cost of it has been terrible. There must, in the opinion of the coal miners, be a closer inspection of the mines."
That would be the long-lasting legacy of Scofield.
But first came the immediate aftermath.
The company bought caskets and funeral suits for each of the victims. Funeral services in Scofield, where 125 of the men were buried, were conducted by a Finnish Lutheran minister brought from Rock Springs and by four general authorities -- George Teasdale, Reed Smoot, Heber J. Grant and Seymour B. Young -- sent by the LDS Church.
Two funeral trains made their sad way both north and south, taking bodies for burial: seven in Springville; four in Provo; three in American Fork; 11 in Ogden; eight in Salt Lake City; five in Spanish Fork; one each in Eureka, Joseph, Wales, Mt. Pleasant and other towns up and down the state.
In addition to relief funds gathered, Pleasant Valley Coal Co. eventually gave each widow $500; and $8,000 in debt at the company store was written off.
Twenty-eight days later, Winter Quarters re-opened. There was, after all, that big Navy contract to fulfill.
"When the accident occurred all of those who escaped practically declared they would never work in the mine again," noted the newspaper, "but most of them have now changed their minds and are ready to resume operations.
" 'That is a peculiarity of coal miners the world over,' said a Salt Lake man, now visiting here who formerly worked in Wyoming. 'I was in the big explosion at Almy, and every man who survived vowed he would never go into that mine again. I was one of the loudest, and yet, after the shock had worn off I was about the first to accept work and return to the mine. They always do that.' "
Many had no other choice. Life went on.
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