Engleside Mining Company Engleside Zinc Mine Explosives Detonation
Center Valley, Jasper County, Missouri
March 4, 1901
No. Killed - 5
Five Miners are Instantly Killed
St. Louis Republic, Missouri
March 5, 1901
Joplin, Mo., March 4. -- Five men were instantly killed and two others were seriously injured by the accidental explosion of dynamite at the Engleside zinc mine, in Center Valley, eight miles east of Joplin, at 3 o'clock this afternoon.
The dead are:
William Buzzard
Edward Strothard
George Wilson
Fritz Morris
Hale Foster
They were working in a drift ten feet from a shaft when the explosion occurred. Two other miners, John Burton and William Daniels, who were working in the bottom of the shaft, were badly injured and a man on the platform some distance away was thrown thirty feet by the force of the explosion.
The cause of the disaster was the accidental explosion of a box of dynamite in the drift. Two shots had been fired in the morning and one shot had failed to explode. A box of dynamite had been sent down into the mine and in working with the unexploded shot one of the men accidentally exploded it and the shock exploded the box of dynamite. Details are not obtainable tonight. Center Valley is a small camp remotely located.
