Worst coalmine disaster in Washington history kills 45 miners at Roslyn on May 10, 1892.

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At 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, 1892, an explosion and fire kill 45 miners in the Northern Pacific Coal Company’s No. 1 mine at Roslyn, located in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Central Washington. It will prove to be the worst coalmine disaster in Washington state history.

Kittitas County Coal

In May 1886, surveyors from the Northern Pacific Railroad found coal deposits on railroad land east of its new station at Cle Elum. The railroad needed coal to fuel its locomotives as it worked to complete the line across the Cascades through Stampede Pass. Workers immediately began to construct a rail line from Cle Elum to the new settlement of Roslyn, along with houses and mine works.

In December 1886, the first coal was shipped out of the Roslyn No. 1 mine. Roslyn -- named by Northern Pacific Vice President Logan M. Bullitt either for a town in Delaware, the birthplace of a sweetheart, or for a town in New York, the residence of a friend -- grew to more than 1,200 residents including many immigrants and African Americans. Roslyn No. 1 mine was followed by three more Northern Pacific mines in the area.

Conditions in the Mine

By 1892, Roslyn No. 1 mine had expanded to seven levels and a depth of 2,700 feet below the town. Eleven furnaces burned around the clock to create drafts to ventilate the mine and disperse dangerous methane gas (called at the time firedamp). But the main airway did not extend below the fourth level. A passage cut into the slope below the fourth level provided some ventilation. Miners were in the process of connecting the airway from the fifth level to the sixth level and downward when the volatile gas detonated.

Mine officials started a recovery effort, but many miners were reluctant to go back down into the mine. The first day, workers removed 14 bodies. All 45 bodies were removed by Thursday afternoon. The victims were buried in local cemeteries, one for whites and one for African Americans. These coalmine workers were some of the 50,000 coal miners killed on the job in the United States between 1870 and 1914.

Investigations

Two committees, one of mine officials, one of miners, as well as a State Coal Mine Inspector, First District Coal Mine Inspector David Edmunds, launched investigations. The miners’ committee differed on the seat of the explosion. The company committee set the location at the airway being driven between the fifth and sixth levels and stated that the explosion was touched off by blasting powder used to break the rock. The State Inspector of Mines believed that the mining blast opened a crack to a pocket of gas and that a miner’s lamp on the slope side set off the explosion.

Most miners worked with the help of light from open flames attached to their hats. The miners on the airway side used gauze safety lamps. Coal itself contains methane and in a dusty mine an explosion immediately distills more gas from the coal dust, fueling the fire. Later coal mines were sprinkled with water to control dust, and later still they were rock-dusted (usually with powdered limestone), to dilute the highly combustible coal dust. Sprinkling or rock-dusting greatly reduces the danger of explosion and fire, but this was before that time.

At Roslyn No. 1, workers not killed by the explosion itself were quickly asphyxiated. The coroner’s jury established that "the death was cause by an explosion of gas caused by "deficient ventilation" (Inspector of Mines, 15).

The disaster created 29 widows and 91 orphans. Some families filed suit against the Northern Pacific Coal Co. The parties settled with $1,000 going to each widow except where there was a working age son and then the payment was $500.

The last Roslyn coal mine closed in 1962.

The Victims

The 45 killed miners were:

Joseph Bennett
Dominio Bianco
John Bowen
Thomas Brennan
George Brooks
Joseph Browitt
Henry Campbell
Tobias Cooper
Joseph Cusworth, Jr.
Joseph Cusworth, Sr.
Herman Daister
Phillip D. Davis
Andrew Erlandson
George Forsythe
Richard Forsythe
John Foster
Scott Giles
Robert Graham
William Hague
Mitchell Hale
Frank Haney
John Hodgson
Thomas Holmes
James Huston
Elisha Jackson
John Lafferty
J. D. Lewis
Preston Loving
John Mattias
Daniel McLellan
James Morgan
George Moses
Benjamin Ostliff
William Palmer
William Penhall
Leslie Pollard
David Rees
Thomas Rees
William Robinson
Mitchell Ronald
Robert Spotts
Winyard Steele
Jacob Weatherby
G. M. Williams
Sydney Wright

Sources:
"Fifty Probably Killed," The New York Times, May 11, 1892, p. 5; "The Dead at Roslyn Mine," Ibid., May 12, 1892, p. 5; John C. Shideler, Coal Towns in the Cascades: A Centennial History of Roslyn and Cle Elum, Washington; (Spokane: Melior Publications, 1986); Annual Report of the Coal Mine Inspectors of the State of Washington, 1892, 1893, 1894 (Olympia: State of Washington, 1894), 8-16; Priscilla Long, Where the Sun Never Shines: A History of America's Bloody Coal Industry (New York: Paragon House, 1989), 24-51.
Note: This file was corrected on December 28, 2006, to note the correct spelling of the name of Joseph Bennett, per information supplied by his great grandson. It was corrected on November 5, 2009, to note the correct spelling of the name of Winyard Steele, as supplied by his great grandson.

By David Wilma, December 04, 2006

This file made possible by:
The State of Washington
Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation

Northern Pacific Coal Company, Roslyn Mine No. 1, ca. 1886
Courtesy Coal Towns in the Cascades

Funeral procession for victims of mine disaster, Roslyn, May 1892
Courtesy Roslyn Museum

Grave markers for Winyard Steele and Mitchell Hale, killed in coalmine disaster of May 10, 1892, Roslyn
Courtesy Albert Mitchell Steele

Graveside photo of families of Winyard Steele and Mitchell Hale, killed in the May 10, 1892 coalmine disaster, Roslyn, May 1892
Courtesy Albert Mitchell Steele