The Jokerville Mine Explosion of Eighteen Eighty Four
Near Crested Butte, Colorado
On the morning of January twenty fourth, eighteen eighty four, a blast tore through the Jokerville Mine just outside Crested Butte, and it killed roughly fifty nine men and boys. It remains one of the deadliest mine disasters in Colorado history. The Jokerville had opened only a few years earlier, run by the Colorado Coal and Iron Company, and it was thick with methane gas that seeped from the coal seams.
That day the mine's fire boss had warned men away from certain tunnels because the gas had built up dangerously, but someone either missed or ignored the warning and went in carrying an open flame lamp. The gas ignited and the mine erupted. Investigators later blamed improperly sealed chambers, entrances built too close together, and the everyday use of open flames underground.
The youngest killed were two twelve year old boys, William Neath and Tommy Lyle. Some of the saddest deaths came near the mouth of the mine. About twenty men made it within two hundred feet of the exit, unhurt by the blast itself, but the explosion had smashed the ventilation fan to pieces, and the air went bad.
They suffocated. Rescuers found them with handkerchiefs pressed over their mouths.
