An explosion deep underground in the Smith Mine on February 27, 1943 killed 74 mine workers and one rescue worker. Though there were literally dozens of newspaper articles published on the disaster at the time, the Billings Gazette revisited the disaster 70 years later with a retrospective article. Excerpts from the lengthy story follow.
Montana's worst coal mine disaster
marks 70 years since Bearcreek explosion
By LORNA THACKERAY | Feb 26, 2013
Saturday paid time-and-a-half at the Montana Coal and Iron Co.’s Smith Mine between Bearcreek and Washoe. Miners who had just emerged from the Great Depression of the 1930s eagerly worked the overtime weekend shift. They had the added incentive of doing their part to keep the World War II war machine running. Although many were immigrants, they were a patriotic lot, according to Matt Stump, a senior in history at Montana State University Billings. Most had the cost of war bonds deducted from their wages, he said.
Daylight was about an hour old when Frank Mourich, a native of Austria, and 76 other coal miners entered the mouth of the Smith Mine on Feb. 27, 1943. On that bright winter morning, they descended about 7,000 feet into the No. 3 vein and went to work. It was mostly a seasoned, middle-aged crew, but there were many on both ends of the age spectrum. Andrew Jorden, 21, of Red Lodge, and Adam Lee Wakenshaw, 72, an immigrant from England, toiled deep underground, as did Wakenshaw’s 39-year-old son, Robert. No one knows whether any of these men intent on their work noticed an unusual buildup of methane gas or coal dust, and there are only theories about what ignited an explosion so powerful that it blew a 20-ton locomotive off its tracks. But an hour and 37 minutes after their shift began, all but three of the miners were dead or dying in the worst coal mine disaster in Montana history. They were survived by 58 widows and 125 children.
Accounts from that day 70 years ago say the explosion was so deep in the mine that it was not felt at the surface. The Billings Gazette reported the next day that Art Lantana, who was working above ground, saw smoke pouring from the opening. An emergency siren began to wail, summoning off-duty miners and relatives to the mine mouth. Management got its first notification of the disaster below from hoisting engineer Alex Hawthorne, 55, who telephoned the surface and said: “There’s something wrong down here. I’m getting out.” Before he got far, Hawthorne was overcome by fumes. Two others, Willard Reid and Eli Houtonen, were blown down by the force of a wind from below.
A rescue force braving the deadly gas brought all three unconscious men to the surface along with two bodies. The Gazette said that they had been working in Vein No. 2. All three survivors, who were described in the newspaper as “very sick,” were rushed to a hospital in Red Lodge, five miles away. Also hospitalized early that day were eight volunteers who were searching for survivors.
Hawthorne later said that he and the other survivors were working 4,800 feet inside the mine “When the power failed and I sensed serious trouble I grabbed the telephone and rang desperately. At that time a cyclone of wind ascended from the mine, carrying sticks and everything that was loose. Then came the worst smell that I have ever sensed and I knew there was an explosion.” Another miner called to him, he said, and they started out with a loaded coal car. “That’s the last I remember until I came to here in the hospital,” Hawthorne said.
Miners from Montana Coal and Iron’s nearby Foster Mine joined rescue parties, as did crews from Klein and Roundup. An Army paratroop transport based in Helena picked up a special 14-man rescue squad from the copper mines in Butte and flew the men to Billings. The squad was ferried to the mine in screaming Montana Highway Patrol cars.
In agonizing slowness over the next week, the number of bodies began to mount. The last — that of mine foreman Elmer Price, 53 — came out on March 7. He left a wife and five children. Funeral announcements for victims of the disaster ran in The Gazette’s pages until March 19.
The final casualty of the disaster, Matt Woodward, a rescue worker suffering the effects of his efforts, died April 9. His death brought the total to 75.
It was later determined that about 30 of the men died from injuries caused by force of the explosion. Carbon monoxide and lack of oxygen killed the rest. At least five of the doomed miners survived for an hour and a half — long enough to scrawl a few last words for their families. Three messages were found. According a wire service report, the miners wrote with chalk on rough boards. Emil Anderson, 40, left this final message: “It’s five minutes pass 11 o’clock. Dear Agnes and children I am sorry we had to go this way — God bless you all.”
Another note listed Frank Pajnich, 53; Fred Rasborschek, 61; Sundar; and Joki. They wrote “We try to do our best but couldn’t get out."
One found near Walter Joki, 30, and John Sundar, 28, read, “Goodbye wifes and daughters. We died an easy death. Love from us both. Be good.”
From the Montana Standard