A Terrific Explosion – The Destruction of 2½ Tons Nitro Going Off

1878

Fearful Destruction by Two and a Half Tons of Nitroglycerine — Men Torn to Pieces — Machinery and Windows Demolished

Particulars of the recent nitroglycerine explosion, near Negaunee, Lake Superior, have been received. Nearly two tons and a half of nitroglycerine had been hauled to the Chicago and Northwestern railroad track, half a mile west of Negannee, and was being loaded into a freight car preparatory to its shipment to the Republic iron mine, some fifteen miles distant. In some unaccountable manner the nitroglycerine exploded just before ten o'clock in the morning.

The people of Negaunee thought at first an earthquake was about to overwhelm them. The entire city was shaken up, and a dense cloud of smoke and dust arose. The shock was terrible beyond imagination. Where the freight car had stood the railroad track for about fifty feet was torn from its bed and the rails twisted, broken and hurled away, and a hole twenty-five feet in diameter and five feet deep excavated and the earth thrown for rods around in every direction.

Not the slightest trace of the car was visible. The locomotive and tender, which stood behind the car, were thrown back over one hundred feet. Wheels, blues, cab, tubes, bell and everything about it were wrenched, twisted and torn asunder. Long lines of ore cars, standing upon a side track nearby, were stove in and demolished, and shreds and scrape of iron, wood, tin, etc., covered the snow in all directions.

Lying on the bottom of the cab were four of the seven men who were engaged in loading the car — the engineer, fireman and two brakemen — mangled and burned beyond recognition, with their heads hanging over the edge. As soon as the horror-stricken crowd which hastened to the scene could recover their senses, they took the charred and mangled remains of these unfortunates from the cab and, laid them on the ground until a team was procured, when they were taken to the depot for recognition. Of the other three men who were engaged in handling the cars nothing could be seen, but after diligent search a few fragments of charred flesh and bones were picked up and put together. Not more than enough fragments to fill an ordinary bucket were found.

About one hundred feet from the place of the explosion is the north pit of the Jackson mine. Down into this pit were hurled a horse, cart and driver. At the engine house adjoining this pit the force of the explosion rent the roof, stove in the sides and splintered every loose board, besides shattering and breaking the engine machinery inside. The engineer in this building luckily escaped with a few bruises. At the upper Jackson location, the windows, doors, ceilings, furniture and dishes at all the houses were broken and strewn about in great confusion, and women and children were lifted from their feet and hurled among the rubbish. The location was in fact a general wreck. At the Jackson school, where the children had just been called together, when the shock came every window in the west aide of the building was crushed in with the sashes, throwing a shower of shattered glass and fragments of sash over the heads of the children, and injuring four of them.

The Marquette Mining Journal says Captain Merry, of the Jackson mine, stood near the fatal car when the men commenced loading it, but fearing an accident started to leave the spot. He had walked about one hundred feet when the explosion took place, just as he happened to stand behind a small mound, which sheltered him from the full force of the shock. As it was he was thrown upon the ground violently, but sustained no serious injuries.

C. M. Wheeler, manager of the nitroglycerine works, was standing in front of the northwestern depot when the explosion took place and fainted when he heard the report. The horse attached to the cart that was thrown by the explosion into a pit fifty feet from the fatal car, when hauled out walked off as though nothing had happened. The driver escaped with slight injuries. The shock of the explosion was felt at Ishpening Cascade, the Saulsbury mine, the Carp Hill section house and Sand Switch, fully ten miles from Negaunee.

The losses by the explosion will reach nearly $20,000. Very little work was done at any of the Negaunee mines after the explosion, as most of the miners were kept busy boarding up the windows of their houses.