1893 Mine Explosion
Mine No. 5 was established at King in 1889 and became the scene of a similar tragic occurrence.[1] In January of 1893 a "premature shot"[2] caused an explosion that killed approximately twenty-five miners,[3] more than half of whom were of Italian descent.[4] The Fairplay Flume first named Charley Antonelli as the accidental instigator of the explosion, but exonerated him later upon learning that it was in fact Stephen Conti.[5] It is hard to determine wether either man was guilty as the only survivor of the explosion, James Carmosini, was badly injured and died of his wounds having "never recovered sufficiently to tell anything of how the accident occured [sic]."[6] Other Flume articles claim that Carmosini did share information with them, and describe in personal detail how he chanced to survive the blast and the horrors he encountered in his scramble to escape. While Mine No. 5 continued to produce coal until 1896, the explosion left the miners on edge and they went on strike later in the same month of 1893 because of overcrowding in the mines.[7]
When comparing the 1893 explosion to the probable 1885 explosion, some disturbing differences appear. To start, the bodies of the European miners were recovered, while those of the Chinese miners were not. The Flume article of 1893 goes so far as to include a list of each and every miner who was killed by the explosion, by name and occupation within the mine.[8] The 1893 incident received a lot of attention in the state newspapers. Accounts appeared in the Aspen Daily Chronicle, the Rocky Mountain News, the Colorado Daily Chieftain, and the West Side Citizen, to name a few. The 1885 explosion received zero news coverage. Finally, a memorial was erected in the Como cemetery in remembrance of those who died in the 1893 explosion.
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[1] Allison Chandler, “The Story of Como & King Park, Colorado,” Denver Westerners Roundup, February 1963, 6.
[2] “A Calamity,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), Jan. 11, 1893, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/.
[3] “Most Horrible Disaster,” Fairplay Flume (Fairplay, CO), Jan. 12, 1893, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection; Fairplay Flume (Fairplay, CO), Jan. 26, 1893, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
[4] “Most Horrible Disaster,” Fairplay Flume.
[5] Fairplay Flume (Fairplay, CO), Jan. 19, 1983, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
[6] Fairplay Flume, Jan. 26, 1893.
[7] “One Hundred Out,” Aspen Times (Aspen, CO), Jan. 21, 1893, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
[8] “Most Horrible Disaster,” Fairplay Flume.