Actual mine deaths in Utah

[johnrsemt]

After doing some searching on line for mine deaths: I wonder if the '10' that have died in Utah is accurate.

Sounds like they are adding the rescuers that died in the Crandall mine to that total. Anyway to find out?

[Mike]

March 9, 1953 (Monday)
Muddy Creek (Ricci) mine, Muddy Creek Canyon, 8.5 miles northwest of Emery
Sevier County (coal)
Alfred Ricci, 45, of Helper and Wright M. Scott, 35, of St. George died when they entered the
mine to recover mining equipment that had been left there three years earlier when the mine was
sealed as a result of a coal seam fire. Six five-man crews worked for three days to find the men,
but were turned back by dangerous conditions, including cave-ins, fire, and smoke. Ricci was
the son of the mine’s owner, Albert Ricci.
[Deseret News and Telegram, Thursday, 3/12/53 page A9, “Emery Halts Mine Search”]
August 18, 1963 (Sunday)
Flagstaff mine (Site 4020332VO023, 24, or25), Bonanza Flat, 4 miles southwest of Park City
Wasatch County (noncoal)
Paul M. Parmalee, 16, of Salt Lake City fell 300 feet to his death when a rotten ladder gave way
as he was descending the shaft. His companions, Gary Lamb, 16, David Nielson, 21, and Judy
Brown, 19, all of Salt Lake City, observed from above. The mine had been abandoned only ten
years.
Shafts in the Flagstaff mine complex were backfilled in 1991 as part of the UAMRP’s Wasatch
Project.
[Deseret News and Telegram, Monday, 8/19/63 page A1, “Tragedy in Old Utah Mine: Plunge
Kills Youth” by Keith Cannon and Jan Padfield; Deseret News and Telegram, Tuesday, 8/20/63
page A10, “Warning: Avoid Abandoned Mine”; Summit County Bee & Park Record, Thursday,
8/22/63, page 1, “Flagstaff Mine Claims Life of Salt Lake Boy.”]
October 19, 1966 (Wednesday)
Cactus mine, San Francisco Mountains
Beaver County (noncoal)
Willis Finch of Milford and Calvin Semallie of Arizona died when they encountered black damp
in the mine, which had not been worked for many years. The men were engaged in cleaning out
the mine when they died. Both were employees of the Cameron Mining Company.
[Deseret News, Thursday, 10/20/66 page B2, “Suffocate In Old Utah Mine”]

1971
Unnamed mine (Site 3061706HO025), Gold Hill
Tooele County (noncoal)
David E. Cureton, 19, of Stockton, California, died from a rockfall while collecting minerals
with his father, a noted mineralogist.
Incidents at Abandoned Mines in Utah: Page 2
The adit was sealed with a concrete block wall on August 22, 2007, as part of the UAMRP’s
Gold Hill Project.
[Mitchell, Richard S. 1987. Who's Who In Mineral Names: Forrest E. Cureton II and Michael
E. Cureton. Rocks and Minerals 62(Jan/Feb 1987):38-40; pers. comm. Forrest Cureton, 8/15/07]

June 20, 1985 (Thursday)
Devil’s Hole (Site 3411301VO001), 2.5 miles east of Toquerville
Washington County (noncoal)
Wayne Monnett, 25, of LaVerkin died when he encountered black damp while descending a
shallow shaft during a Sunday school class outing.
The shaft was backfilled under the direction of the UAMRP by Washington County in a
cooperative effort.
[Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday, 6/22/85 page D1, “Mine Shaft’s Gas Blamed in Death”; Deseret
News, Friday, 6/21/85 page 4B, “La Verkin man suffocates in mine shaft”]

September 1, 1985 (Sunday)
Unnamed mine (Site 2060507VO002), Promontory Mountains
Box Elder County (noncoal)
Kris Marchant, 11, of Ogden died when he fell down a 475-foot shaft while riding a 3-wheeler
ATV with his family.
The shaft was backfilled in early 1986 as part of the UAMRP’s Promontory Project, which
closed 107 mine openings on Promontory Point.
[Deseret News, Monday, 9/2/85 page B1, “Fall into mine shaft kills Ogden boy, 11”]

December 22, 1985 (Sunday)
Elberta Shaft (Site 3110104VO001), south of Elberta
Utah County (noncoal)
Dwayne McManness, 23, of Santaquin died when he fell 200 feet down a shaft while exploring
the mine with two friends.
The shaft was backfilled in January 1986 as part of the UAMRP’s Bullion Beck Project.
[Deseret News, Monday, 12/23/85 page B1, “Utah County man killed in fall down mine shaft”;
Utah County Sheriff Report #85-45054]

December 13, 1995 (Wednesday)
White River Oil Shale Project, 45 miles southeast of Vernal
Uintah County (noncoal)
Rick Bildey, 36, of Vernal was killed while welding a grate onto a mine shaft vent pipe when
Incidents at Abandoned Mines in Utah: Page 3
methane gas in the mine exploded. The explosion sent debris up to 200 yards away. Tom
Justice, 55, and Glen Kurtz, 65, both of Roosevelt, were working nearby outside the shaft at the
time of the explosion. They suffered cuts and burns and were hospitalized. The mine had been
out of production since 1984 and was under the control of the Bureau of Land Management. The
men had been contracted by the BLM to seal the shaft.
The site was studied for reclamation by the BLM and UAMRP and was later reactivated for
mining.
[Salt Lake Tribune, Friday, 12/15/95 page B8, “Welder May Have Sparked Deadly Blast at Shale
Mine” by Vince Horiuchi; Deseret News, Friday, 12/15/95 page B1, “Mine explosion claims 1
man, injures 2 others”]

January 13, 1996 (Saturday)
Honorine mine (Site 3040413VO001), Oquirrh Mountains near Stockton
Tooele County (noncoal)
Jeremiah Etherington, 18, of Magna was exploring the mine with three other teens. Etherington
had lowered himself 30 feet down a 600-foot winze located 3/4 mile within the mine to a timber
spanning the winze. Falling debris knocked him to the bottom of the shaft, probably killing him
instantly. His friends summoned help. An intensive search and rescue operation was called off
the following Monday evening when unstable conditions prevented rescuers from reaching the
bottom of the winze. The family later successfully retrieved the Etherington’s body in a daring
but dangerous independent recovery effort.
The mine was closed by the Tooele County sheriff.
[The incident received extensive print and broadcast media coverage at the time, including:
Deseret News, Tuesday, 1/16/96 page B1, “Search for Magna man called off indefinitely” by
Cala Byram; Salt Lake Tribune, Saturday, 1/20/96 page B1, “Family Now Knows—Body Pulled
From Mine” by Vince Horiuchi]

January 23, 1999 (Saturday)
Unnamed mine (Site 3070322VO001), Thorpe Hills near Sevenmile Pass
Tooele County (noncoal)
Robert Bartholomew, 26, of American Fork died when he drove an ATV into a 50-foot-deep
mine shaft.
The shaft was backfilled on February 16, 1999 as part of the UAMRP’s Fivemile Pass/West Dip
Project.
[Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, 1/24/99 page C2, “Death in Mine Shaft”; Deseret News, Sunday,
1/24/99 page B1, “Am.F. man killed when he falls down a mineshaft”; Tooele Transcript
Bulletin online edition, 1/26/99, “ATV rider falls into shaft, dies”]
Incidents at Abandoned Mines in Utah: Page 4

August 18, 2005 (Thursday)
Unnamed mine, east bench of Provo on Y Mountain east of the Seven Peaks Water Park
Utah County (noncoal)
J. Blake Donner, 24, Springville, Scott K. McDonald, 28, Provo, Jennifer Lynn Galbraith, 21,
Pleasant Grove, and Ariel R. Singer, 18, Orem, drowned after being trapped in an underwater
passageway. The media reports variably refer to the site as a cave or an abandoned mine. It is
apparently a natural cave or spring that had been opened and enlarged by people, qualifying it
as a mine, though it may not have produced minerals.
The entrance was sealed with a concrete wall later the same day (August 18, 2005) by the
landowner, Provo City.
[Salt Lake Tribune, Friday, 8/19/05 page A1, “Daredevil cave trip ends in tragedy - Four young
Utahns die as they try to traverse a submerged tunnel; Searchers pull four bodies from cave”;
Deseret News, Friday, 8/19/05 page A1, “4 drown in cave”; Provo Daily Herald, Thursday,
8/18/05, “Two women and two men found dead in Provo cave”]

[Mike]

The number is actually extremely skewed as the last incident August 18, 2005 was a cave and not a mine. They DOGM claims it as a mine because a small part of it had been enlarged or altered by man - but would this not make the Timpanogos Cave a full fledged mine by their standards?

[John]

Timp cave was in fact claimed and mined for a short period early on, by idiots who thought the calcite formations were onyx.

[Mike]

BTW, there has been an automobile death on KSL every day for the last couple of weeks. ...

[johnrsemt]

Mine deaths

Like I was saying; it only seems like there has been 3 exploring deaths since 1985. Even though there was an article on KSL saying there has been over 10 since then.

On of the deaths that was listed here was someone welding a grate. 2-3 were people who weren't watching where they were riding ATVs (but not listed as ATV deaths, mine deaths). and drowning in a cave.

but exploring mines are so so dangerous.

[ExpUt]

Its extremely difficult to compare the low number of mine exploring related deaths to those of ATV, auto, sporting, etc because with most other 'sports' there is some general number of direct total users, be it a educated guess or some actual quantitative data. With mine exploring its extremely difficult to put a number on the total 'users' if you will. Efforts like Mojave Undergrounds trip are really helping however there are vasts amount we will never hear, see or interact with. I see random photo galleries, trip reports, names scratched into timbers or rock walls, there could be a 1000 Utahans exploring mines at least once a year or 10,000... just too hard to tell. One could make some estimates and come up with some statistics to compare against other risk based activities.

[Therrin]

Jeremiah Etherington, 18, of Magna was exploring the mine with three other teens. Etherington
had lowered himself 30 feet down a 600-foot winze located 3/4 mile within the mine to a timber
spanning the winze. Falling debris knocked him to the bottom of the shaft, probably killing him
instantly. His friends summoned help. An intensive search and rescue operation was called off
the following Monday evening when unstable conditions prevented rescuers from reaching the
bottom of the winze. The family later successfully retrieved the Etherington’s body in a daring
but dangerous independent recovery effort.

So SAR basically said "can't be done", then the family went and did it. Huh.

[ExpUt]

So SAR basically said "can't be done", then the family went and did it. Huh.

I don't know that they used the term 'can't be done' rather 'too risky'. The first mantra of SAR is do not create more victims in the effort to rescue another. Obviously the level of acceptable risk was altered after knowing the victim had likely passed. His uncle (a SLC firefighter) performed the recovery. Armed with some basic gear, hard-wired phones and some mine intel from a local they were able to recover the body at the 420ft mark on their second attempt.

I remember this case vividly, I was 16 at the time and was super interested in mines, mining and treasure hunting at that point in my mind. I still have the newspaper clippings from all the articles on the Honorine and Etherington. I've always thought the Tooele County Sherriff was very stand up to allow the family access to the mine, something I don't think we would see in a similar event?

[Therrin]

I just mean it's obviously not an isolated incident that SAR says it's too dangerous and then someone else goes and does it without compounding injuries or deaths. I can understand erring on the side of safety though.

And I can also see that 99.9% of "families" wouldn't have the personal means or skill to do something like that, but in my mind at least, if someone is willing to risk their own life to give it a shot, and they do so knowing such full well... then it should be their option to try it.

Many of us take that risk on some "sketchy" systems that we enter on our own for purely exploration purposes. I just think if you're already willing to take the risk, and it's a decision you've made on your own, you should be able to do it for a goal and a higher purpose as well.

Props to the uncle though, I've deep respect for a guy like that.