Greeley, Weld County, Colorado
September 9, 1889
No. Killed - 11
Colorado Inspector of Coal Mines Report(2.5 Mb)White Ash Disaster Marker
Location: 39° 45.129′ N, 105° 13.629′ W.
Marker is in Golden, Colorado, in Jefferson County. Marker is on 12th Street, 0.1 miles west of Maple Street, on the left when traveling west. Marker is in this post office area: Golden CO 80401
Photographed by Duane and Tracy Marsteller
Source: The Historical Marker DatabaseEleven Lives Lost in the Mine Disaster at Golden, Col.
The New York Times, New York
September 11, 1889
Denver, Col., Sept. 10. -- The special couriers sent out from here last night to the scene of the coal mine disaster near Golden, Col., returned to this city at 2 o'clock this morning and give the following account of the accident which places the number of killed at eleven, instead of ten.
Following are their names of the dead:
Johnnie Murphy
William Collins, who leaves a wife and four children
Jack Collins, wife and four children
Joseph Allen, one child
Joseph Hunter, four children
William Bowden
David Lloyd
John Morgan
Henry Huseman, wife and five children
Richard Rowe
One other man whose name has not yet been learned
The mine is situated one mile from Golden and produces from fifty to one hundred tons of coal per day. The men who lost their lives were at work in a drift from the bottom of the shaft, 750 feet down, and were 800 feet from the shaft. The drift runs alongside of what is known as the Old Loveland mine.
Yesterday morning there was fifty feet of water in the old shaft. At 6 o'clock last evening it was visited by the manager of the White Ash to determine what connection it might have with a rush of water noticed in the White Ash mine, when it was found to be dry, the water having all passed into the shaft where the men were at work.
There is not the slightest hope of rescuing any of the eleven men alive, and it will require days, if not weeks, of hard work to reach their bodies. All that could be done last night was to make arrangements to start the pumps this morning.
Around the entrance of the mine are huddled together the widows and orphans of the victims. Occasionally one of them ventures nearer the mine and pears down into the shaft upon the cruel waters that have taken their beloved ones from them. One glance should satisfy them that there is no possible chance of ever seeing them alive.
