[2] On May 1, 1900, a dust explosion in the Winter Quarters Mine killed at least 200 men, with some rescuers placing the death toll as high as 246.
It still ranks as one of the worst mining disasters in the United States with a high number of deaths.
The State Mine Inspector's Report determined that ten 25-pound kegs of black powder detonated in the Number 4 Section.
[citation needed] Over the next two days many people from the towns of Clear Creek and Scofield worked to remove the bodies and care for the dead and wounded.
Most of the bodies from Number 4 were burned and mutilated and had to be placed in sacks whereas those killed by gas were loaded into coal carts by the dozen to be hauled out of the mine.
[citation needed]135 graves were dug at the Scofield cemetery, some of which were widened to hold fathers and sons.
President William McKinley sent a wire, expressing "... my intense sorrow upon learning of the terrible calamity which has occurred at Scofield, and my deep sympathy with the wives, children and friends of the unfortunate victims of the explosion.
[1] One man, one of six Evans brothers working at the mine that day, went through the Abercarn colliery disaster in Wales in 1878, when 268 miners had been killed.