Bakersfield, California, USA
1906 - SIX BURIED IN A TUNNEL. ENTOMBED IN KERN RIVER POWER CO.'S SHAFT. FOURTEEN SECTIONS COLLAPSED LIKE CARDS AND BODIES ARE FAR BEYOND REACH.

Bakersfield, Dec. 7. - Six miners were entombed this morning by the caving of a shaft leading to the big steel pipe conduit which passes through a mountain 2000 feet at a high angle in the Kern river canyon, at Camp No. 1, of the Edison Power company plants, eighteen miles from this city.
The names of the miners are:
G. ANDERSON.
C. D. ROBLES.
GEORGE WARNER.
H. FARRIS.
L. D. HICKS.
JOHN WHIBLE.

Reports as to the seriousness of the accident are conflicting and from the office of GLASS and FISHER, a contracting firm, it was stated tonight that but seventy feet of shafting was caved in and that work on the line would be delayed about one week. Coroner MULLINS has been notified of the accident, but will not go to the scene until two weeks, being instructed that it will take that length of time to reach the bodies.

The accident occurred while the miners were removing timbers from the shaft. It is supposed that the workmen had become careless, in their anxiety to make good time, and after removing a piece of timber, had neglected to block it in the usual way.

The falling earth gave impetus to the fourteen sections of the shaft and they fell like a card house, causing the cave in of the shaft and burying the six workmen under tons of rock and earth.

As soon as word of the accident reached town a score of miners were dispatched to the camp to assist in the work of clearing the shaft, in order to reach the bodies. This evening, wagon loads of heavy timbers used in shafting left for the canon and with the large force of men at its command the company will rush work night and day.

The plant at Camp No. 1 is nearing completion and it was expected that by the first of the year the transmission of power would have begun. The accident today will delay plans for several weeks at least, as the caved-in shaft had immediate connection with the huge steel conduit which will bring the water of the river through the generators in the power house.

The Fresno Morning Republican
Fresno, California
December 8, 1906

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