Eastern Mojave Vegetation Winter Quarters, Carbon County, Utah.
 
Gazetteer

Query: G.N.I.S.

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Winter Quarters: Portrait of a Disaster
Located up a canyon west of here, Winter Quarters was a small mining community founded about the same time as Scofield. At 10:25 a. m. on May 1, 1900, miners outside shaft No. 4 of the Winter Quarters Mine heard a dull thud. Experienced miners knew there had been an explosion. Working in coal dust sometimes ankle-deep, 199 of the 312 men inside the mine were quickly overcome by lethal gas produced when the dust was ignited by the explosion.
The Winter Quarters tradegy was the deadliest coal mine accident in U. S. history to that time. It left 107 widows, and 268 children fatherless, affecting virtually every family in Winter Quarters and Scofield. In spite of the disaster, the burning portion of the mine was sealed off and, after appropriate condolences to the families, surviving miners went back to work. The mines produced for another thirty years.


Elevation: 8087ft, 2465m.
 

Literature Referring To This Location:

  • Dilley, J. W. 1900. History of the Scofield Mine Disaster. Provo, Utah: The Skelton Publishing Company, 1900. Recounting of the early morning explosion on May 1, 1900, at Winter Quarters mine in Scofield, that killed more than two hundred (mostly immigrant) miners. At the time, the worst mining disaster in American history. Later immortalized in song by Utah Phillips.
No collections made at this location.
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Date and time this article was prepared:7:39:51 PM, 12/9/2024.