One man was rescued alive in the Oakdale mine of the Oakdale Coal Company near LaVeta, which was wrecked by an explosion. William Davis, a miner, was brought out by rescue crews after an undisclosed period and resuscitated. Eighteen miners were killed in the incident. Source documentScore Missing in Mine Blast
Eau Claire Leader, Wisconsin
August 19, 1919
Trinidad, Colo., Aug. 18. -- Nineteen or twenty men are believed dead, buried under the debris from the explosion at 11 o'clock this morning in the Oakdale Mine of the Oakdale Coal Company, near La Veta, Colo. At 6 o'clock tonight five rescue crews had been unable to recover any of the bodies.
Fumes from the gas explosion tonight filled the mine and several rescuers were overcome and were revived with difficulty. Owing to the wrecked condition of the mine, and gas fumes, it was considered doubtful whether the full death list could be learned tonight.
Approximately 40 men were in the mine when the explosion occurred. Ten escaped through the main slope after the explosion and ten others made their way to the surface through an adjoining mine.
William Davis, a miner, one of those overcome by the explosion, recovered sufficiently to make his way to the surface. None of the others have been heard from.
The explosion occurred about a mile and a half in the workings of the mine.
Tonight woman and children, relatives of the missing men, eagerly waited at the mine for word from the rescue crews.
