The words "cave-in" and "mine disaster" inevitably call to mind the coal-mining region of Appalachia.
But 84 years ago, the Gold Country was the scene of the deadliest recorded mine disaster in California, with similarities to the recent Sago mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 12.
On a hot summer night in 1922, fire and toxic gas ripped through a mine shaft nearly a mile beneath the surface, trapping 47 miners. The incident at the Argonaut Gold Mine in Jackson, about 30 miles from Sutter's Mill in Coloma, turned into a 22-day rescue effort.
The harrowing story is told in Times news reports and a recent book.
The Argonaut mine had been discovered in the 1850s by two freed slaves, William Tudor and James Hager. It was destined to become one of California's richest, producing more than $25 million before the federal government closed the nation's gold mines at the beginning of World War II. (Gold was considered nonessential to the war effort.)
Tudor and Hager worked the mine until the 1860s. By the 20th century, it belonged to a large group of investors.
The Argonaut was the heartbeat of Jackson, along with the nearby Kennedy Mine, where ore-crushing hammers shook the earth around the clock.
By the early 1920s, the Argonaut's main shaft extended 4,900 feet into a maze of interconnected caverns and honeycombed tunnels. Most miners, primarily immigrants from Italy, Spain and Serbia, earned $4 a day.
Shortly before midnight on Aug. 27, 1922, when most of Jackson was asleep (or occupied in speak-easies and brothels), a fire broke out below 3,000 feet. Most of the men on the night shift were trapped.
A few miners who were stationed closer to the surface clambered out, alerted others and began pouring water down the shaft. By dawn, the townspeople, firefighters and every miner in Amador County had rushed to help. They could hear water hissing as it hit the flames, raging out of control in the impassable shaft.
It took 2 1/2 days, until Aug. 30, to extinguish the blaze. Two rescue teams began to reopen two passageways that connected the Argonaut with its rival and neighbor, the Kennedy Mine. The tunnels had been closed after a 1919 fire.
In dim light, slowed by heavy oxygen tanks and plagued by small cave-ins, rescuers laboriously cleared rock, timber and debris.
Word of the disaster had spread beyond the county. As the miners' families waited anxiously for news, dozens of reporters and newsreel crews with hand-cranked cameras swarmed into Jackson.
