Look for the concrete bunker among the Aspen trees just up the hill. The “Explosives” sign says it all. Behind its iron door, explosives were kept under lock and key, then loaded onto a car and rolled along the tracks to the mine tunnel each day.
This explosives magazine was built after a tragic lesson. At 11:20 p.m. on July 2, 1902, an explosion deep in the Daly West Mine set off a powder magazine on the 1,200 level. An explosives handler, known as a “powder monkey,” was blown more than 300 feet down a tunnel, and toxic gases flooded the mine. The fumes spread through a connecting tunnel into the nearby Ontario Mine. In all, 34 miners were killed in Park City’s worst mining disaster. The photo on the sign shows the funeral parade for the victims.
Michael G. Nelson was a professor of mining engineering at the University of Utah. His father was a Park City miner 75 years ago who worked at the Silver King Mine.
The Park Record reported about the powder monkey that “not a scrap of his body was found anywhere.”
Another victim named Tony was one of the finest fellows who ever lived, went on a useless mission and lost his life. He volunteered to go down to the 900-foot level and then climb down the raises to the 1400, thinking he might save the two men working there. The men on the upper levels had no idea that 30 of their buddies lay dead down on the 1400. Poor Tony died from the effects of the toxic gases.
The mining company was exonerated of any wrongdoing, but the following year, the Utah legislature passed a law requiring no more than one day’s worth of explosives to be stored inside the mine. Interestingly, almost 100 years later, a cache of dynamite was found during construction of the Montage Hotel near the site of the Daly West Mine. Construction was stopped for weeks while the contractors figured out how to safely remove dynamite. Eventually, a private explosives contractor handled the situation. The mine’s exact location is labeled with a red flag on the audio tour map.
More Information:
Explosion in the Daly West – Not a Scrap of His Body Was Found
Zula Nelson – The Life of a Miner’s Wife
Shaft Sinking in the Park City District