MineArchiveNorth Valley Number One Mine
Fictional record. This page describes a mine from a fictional setting, not a real place. 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.
| Also known as | North Valley, Number One Mine |
|---|---|
| Setting | King Coal (Upton Sinclair) |
| Location | At North Valley, a General Fuel Company camp 'straggling along more than a mile of the mountain canyon' in an unnamed western state modelled on Colorado, reached from the county town of Pedro; the camp holds two mines, Number One and Number Two, the latter nearly a mile up the canyon. |
| Type | Coal |
| Worked | Working before the novel's action, which spans one summer and autumn shortly before the First World War. – Reopened after the explosion for rescue; still a working mine at the novel's end. |
| Extent | A hundred and seven men entombed by the explosion on Hal's count; a second mine, Number Two, in the same camp. |
| Controlled by | General Fuel Company (Throughout the novel) |
Overview
North Valley is the General Fuel Company coal camp in which Hal Warner, a coal magnate's son passing as 'Joe Smith', works as a stableman and then a check-weighman candidate in Upton Sinclair's King Coal. Its Number One mine is the scene of the novel's disaster: a coal-dust explosion that wrecks the fan-house and traps over a hundred men and boys, after which the company boards over and tarpaulins the pit-mouth to smother a fire rather than start the fan and rescue them (see the disaster record). Written after the Colorado coalfield war of 1913-14, the novel uses the camp to set out the company store, the marshal and the stockade, the dishonest scales and the whole apparatus of the closed camp.
History
Hal Warner sets out to learn coal-mining from below, is beaten and thrown out of the Pine Creek Coal Company's camp on suspicion of being a union agitator, and buys his way into North Valley through a saloon-keeper who takes a dollar a month from his pay. The camp's centre is 'the great breaker-buildings, the shaft-house, and the power-house with its tall chimneys', with the company store, two saloons, boarding-houses and rows of board cabins; Alec Stone, pit-boss of Number Two, hires him at forty-five dollars a month to look after the mules. The camp is 'a place of fear': the fire-boss who is supposed to test for gas before every shift may oversleep or be drunk, men are ordered down anyway, a naked light once set off an explosion that killed eight and left bodies wedged between the shaft wall and the cage, and the government statistics give eight or nine deaths in every thousand miners a year. Hal organises the miners to elect him check-weighman, the legal right to a man of their own at the scales, and is jailed and driven out by the camp marshal Jeff Cotton. Then Number One explodes. The fan-house is wrecked, the giant fan flung a hundred feet, and the pit-mouth 'like the steaming crater of a volcano'; the explosion is so violent that it throws out the gearing of Number Two's fan a mile away, and when that mine's men ask to be brought out the pit-boss answers 'Damn the men! Save the mules!'. A new fan is sent for but not started, and the superintendent Enos Cartwright has the shaft closed with boards and canvas to smother the fire, the company putting the entombed at forty while the camp counts two or three times that. Hal escapes to Pedro, finds the district attorney and the press will not move, and takes the story to Percy Harrigan, the Coal King's son, whose private train has brought a party of idlers to the district; shamed into it, Harrigan orders the mine opened, the fan reversed, and after three and a half days the helmet-men go down and the rescuers follow, finding bodies at the shaft foot and fire burning out the timbering in the main passages. The company then announces that it had always meant to open the mine.
Workings
Two shaft mines with cages and hoists; in Number Two the seam runs up at a slope of about five degrees, empty cars are hauled in on an endless rope and loaded cars come back by gravity under the 'spraggers' who brake them, and the vein is four to five feet thick. Ventilation is by a fan in a fan-house at the surface, with a fire-boss to test for gas each morning; the law requires a certain number of openings and an escape-way with ladders, 'but it cost good money to dig holes in the ground'. Coal is weighed at the tipple, where the company's weighman is suspected of short-weighting, and the men are paid in scrip at the company store.
Real-world mining concepts used here: Afterdamp, Fireman, Stone Dusting, Truck System, Sedimentary Beds and Seams
Closure
Not closed; the mine is reopened for the rescue after three and a half days sealed.
What became of it
Working at the novel's end, its dead recovered and its politics unchanged; Sinclair's postscript sets out the real Colorado events behind it.
Canon & adaptations
The novel is a roman a clef on the Colorado coalfield war of 1913-14 and the Ludlow massacre, which Sinclair addresses directly in his postscript; the camp, company and characters are invented. The 1976 sequel The Coal War, written in 1917 but unpublished for sixty years, continues the story and has not been read for this record.
Disasters & major incidents
-
The North Valley Explosion (King Coal)
Autumn, in the novel's single year · Explosion
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.
Related fictional records
The North Valley Explosion (King Coal)
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.
- North Valley straggled along more than a mile of mountain canyon, with breaker-buildings, shaft-house and power-house at its centre, a company store, two saloons, boarding-houses and rows of board cabins. (explicit canon) 1
- The camp had two mines, Number One and Number Two, the second nearly a mile up the canyon; Alec Stone was pit-boss of Number Two. (explicit canon) 1
- A naked light taken down after men had been ordered underground without the fire-boss's certificate caused an explosion that killed eight, some of the bodies wedged between the shaft wall and the cage. (explicit canon) 1
- In Number Two the vein ran up at about five degrees and was four to five feet thick; empty cars went in on an endless rope and loaded cars came back by gravity under the spraggers. (explicit canon) 1
- The Number One explosion wrecked the fan-house, threw the fan a hundred feet, and was felt as a dust explosion from the clouds of coke-dust; the mine's dry, unsprinkled condition was blamed by the men. (explicit canon) 1
- The pit-mouth was made tight with a board and canvas cover while the new fan was slowly set up; the men believed the company meant to keep the mine sealed until the fire was out. (explicit canon) 1
- The company put the number entombed at forty; Hal told the district attorney a hundred and seven; Minetti, Olson and David reckoned two or three times the company's figure. (explicit canon, disputed) 1
- Percy Harrigan, pressed by Hal, ordered the fan reversed and the mine opened; after three and a half days the helmet-men reported lights would burn at the shaft foot and the first rescue party went down in a new cage. (explicit canon) 1
- Hal was chosen check-weighman by the miners and refused access to the scales, for which he sought warrants against the superintendent Enos Cartwright and the tipple-boss James Peters. (explicit canon) 1
- The novel was written after the Colorado coalfield war of 1913-14; its camp, company and characters are fictional. (MineArchive inference) 1,2
Sources
- (primary canon) King Coal (1917), full text — Upton Sinclair; Project Gutenberg edition
- (interpretation) King Coal (novel) — Wikipedia
Record created: 9 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026