Fundraising luncheon for Carbon County mining memorial

Friday, Mar. 27, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — The Carbonite Ladies Club will host a spring luncheon for men and women at Little America Hotel April 11, to raise funds for a Miners Memorial that will be dedicated to the more than 1,350 coal miners who have lost their lives in the mines of Carbon County since mining began in the 1870s.

The memorial will be placed in the Price Peace Garden on Labor Day.

Gary Prazen of Original Creation, Inc., in Carbonville is designing the memorial, which will include a sculpture and plaques that will hold the names of the miners.

Thelda Strong Box organized the Carbonite Ladies Club with a small group of women in 1987; it has grown into an ecumenical group of women of all ethnicities. They meet in the spring and in the fall.

“We strive to maintain the friendship of women with Carbon County connections,” said Martha Ann Bero, Carbonite Ladies Club president and a member of Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center. “Appreciating and passing on the heritage of Carbon County has become increasingly important as more young women have moved away and the older women are passing away.”

To this end, the Carbonite Ladies Club would like to ensure the county’s heritage is visibly maintained, Bero said, adding that is why they are holding this special luncheon dedicated to the miners.

The club membership requested that speakers for the luncheons be from Carbon County, said Bero. This year’s speaker is Kathy Hamaker from Price, who also serves on the Miners Memorial research committee. Past speakers have included Dr. Dominic Albo, a member of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish; Dave Spadafore, a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish; and James Lee, son of former Governor J. Bracken Lee.

Hamaker will talk about the mine disasters and share a few miners’ stories, she said. The first was the Winter Quarters mine explosion on May 1, 1900, which claimed 221 miners’ lives. The Castle Gate mine was March 8, 1924 and killed 172 miners and one rescue worker. In the Feb. 6, 1930 Standardville mine explosion, 20 miners died and three of the rescuers were killed. The Sunnyside mine explosion May 9, 1945 killed 22 men. 

“Those are the biggest mine explosions,” said Hamaker, adding that in other Carbon County mine disasters from one to nine lives were lost.

One of the most intriguing stories Hamaker found in researching miners was John Law Wilson, who survived the Winter Quarters mine explosion even though he was thrown 800 feet across a canyon. When he was found “the back of his skull was crushed like an eggshell and a solid substance had been driven through his abdomen,” Hamaker said. “When he died 27 years later, his death certificate read he died from an ‘old brain injury and carcinoma of the stomach.’”

She also found in the Industrial Commissions book of Jan. 12, 1925 that Wilson was in another accident and was unable to work; a motor had run away with him and he received injuries to his head and chest, she said.

“He had sustained five previous injuries in mines and industries, but recovered from them all,” Hamaker said. “It takes courage to walk into the mine and go miles into a black, dark tunnel in the mountain.”

The miners’ names as they will appear on the memorial are posted at sunad.com. The committee putting together the memorial is still gathering names; information about miners who may not be on the list can be emailed to Frank Markosek at frmarko@behcomm.net. 

WHAT: Carbonite Ladies Club Spring Luncheon 

WHEN: Saturday, April 11, 11:30 a.m. 

WHERE: Little America Hotel, 500 S. Main, Salt Lake City 

Cost: $30 per person, by April 6 

For information, call Martha Ann Bero, 801-582-0768, or Barbara Ladakis, 801-364-1143.