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A century later, it is impossible to fully comprehend the human wreckage of the day Winter Quarters blew.
Of extended coal-mining families gutted by the loss of up to 12 members.
Of fathers dying with sons.
Of two, three -- even five -- brothers perishing in the same instant.
Of a community of recent Finnish immigrants coping not just with the deaths of 63 of its own, but also the scorn and bitterness of English-speaking neighbors who made scapegoats of these foreign "vultures" with their "weird" practices.
With an official toll of 200 deaths, Winter Quarters was the worst mining disaster to that point in United States history, a distinction sadly surpassed three times in the next 15 years.
When May 1 dawned in 1900, residents of Winter Quarters and Scofield were looking ahead to that night's dance to commemorate Admiral Dewey's naval victory over the Spanish in Manila Harbor.
But about 10:25 a.m., a rapid-fire series of explosions ripped through the Pleasant Valley Coal Co.'s Winter Quarters No. 4 mine, crushing and burning the life out of all but two of the 85 men and boys inside.
Within minutes, deadly gases generated by the blasts poured through an interconnecting tunnel into the upper reaches of the Winter Quarters No. 1 mine. While far less violent, the fumes were just as deadly: 117 miners perished.
The explosion shredded the social fabric of Carbon County's two biggest towns -- Winter Quarters, population 696, and Scofield, 642 in that year's census. In its wake were 107 widows, 268 fatherless children and dozens of dependent parents.
Even after a century, the individual tales of woe are numbing.
A mine-rescue team found the bodies of Carbon County Commissioner John James and his son, George, locked in an embrace, obviously anticipating the inescapable arrival of the suffocating gases spawned by the explosion.
That same "afterdamp" also claimed the life of Walter Clark, who was outside the mine when the explosion occurred but ran inside to search for his two ill-fated brothers.
At the Carbon County coroner's inquest into the death of John Hunter, his brother, Hugh, was called to testify. "Tears silently fell from his eyes and his voice was low and husky, revealing mental anguish and deep emotion ....