MineArchiveThe North Valley Explosion (King Coal)
Fictional record. This page describes an incident from a fictional setting, not a real event. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.
| Date | Autumn, in the novel's single year |
|---|---|
| Mine | North Valley Number One Mine |
| Primary type | Explosion |
| Associated types | Entrapment, Fire |
| Fatalities | Not totalled in the text: the company said forty entombed, Hal a hundred and seven, the camp two or three times forty; bodies are found at the shaft foot 'dead for days' and some men are found alive behind their barriers, but no final count is given. |
| Injuries | Not stated. |
| Context | During active mining |
The coal-dust explosion in Number One mine at North Valley that wrecks the fan and traps over a hundred men and boys, after which the General Fuel Company boards and tarpaulins the pit-mouth to smother a fire rather than start the fan, and keeps it sealed for three and a half days until the Coal King's son is shamed into ordering it opened.
Cause
A dust explosion in a dry mine: the coke-dust clouds tell the experienced men what it was, and the mine's dry, unsprinkled condition is blamed; the company answers that the mine was regularly sprinkled with water and adobe dust and that the men were careless with powder.
Contributing factors
Sprinkling left to the bosses' judgment; the legal escape-way and openings skimped because 'it cost good money to dig holes in the ground'; the fan-house wrecked by the blast so that ventilation could not be restored; the new fan deliberately delayed.
What happened
The blast lifts the ground under Hal's feet in the jail and fills the camp with dust; men stream from the breaker and women from every street to the pit-mouth 'like the steaming crater of a volcano'. The superintendent Cartwright runs to the fan-house and finds the giant fan a hundred feet away with its blades smashed: 'That does for us!'. The marshal drives the women back with barbed wire. A new fan is sent for, but as smoke pours from the shaft the opening is boarded over and covered with canvas; the carpenters say no haste is being made and the men understand the mine will stay sealed until the fire is out. The explosion has also stopped the fan at Number Two, a mile up the canyon, where the pit-boss refuses to bring out the men before the mules.
Rescue & recovery
Hal, driven from the camp, fails with the district attorney and the press and takes the story to Percy Harrigan's private train; Harrigan gives the order, the fan is reversed to draw the smoke up the air-course, and after three and a half days helmet-men find lights will burn at the shaft foot. Carpenters build a new cage overnight, the volunteers go down in groups with picks and crow-bars, bodies dead for days lie near the shaft foot, and the fire is found burning out the timbering of the main passages under the reversed fan's draught; the helmet-men go on into the burning workings.
Investigation & inquiry
None within the novel; the company's own account minimises the loss and blames the men's handling of powder, and the press suppresses the story.
Aftermath
Hal's affidavits against Cartwright, Stone and Peters for the sealing and for the check-weighman refusal go nowhere; the company announces it had always intended to open the mine.
Consequences
None; the novel's point is that none follow.
Memorials & commemoration
None.
Canon & adaptations
Sinclair's characters cite the real Cherry, Illinois disaster of 1909 and Diamondville, Wyoming as precedents for sealing a burning mine; the North Valley events themselves are fiction drawn on the Colorado strike of 1913-14.
Related fictional records
Recorded claims
Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.
- The pit-mouth was boarded over and covered with canvas to smother the fire rather than start the fan; the carpenters at the fan-house said no haste was being made. (explicit canon) 1
- The explosion threw out the gearing of Number Two's fan a mile up the canyon, and the pit-boss Alec Stone answered a plea to bring out the men with 'Damn the men! Save the mules!'. (explicit canon) 1
- Percy Harrigan ordered the mine opened; the fan was reversed and after three and a half days the rescuers went down in a new cage. (explicit canon) 1
- No final death toll is given; the company said forty entombed and the camp far more. (explicit canon) 1
Sources
- (primary canon) King Coal (1917), full text — Upton Sinclair; Project Gutenberg edition
Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026