Posted on 10/11/2024 7:14:40 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
One person has died, 11 people have been rescued and 12 people remain trapped at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, a tourist mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said Thursday during a news conference.
Among those rescued, two were children and four were seen by medical personnel for minor injuries, according to Mikesell, who did not provide details on the fatality.
At around noon Thursday, the mine experienced a mechanical issue with its elevator system, causing “a severe issue for riders on-board,” Mikesell said. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
The 12 people trapped at the bottom of the 1,000-foot-deep mine are safe, Mikesell said. As they face cold temperatures around 50 degrees, they have water, blankets, chairs and a radio. Facilities like restrooms however aren’t available underground, according to the tour website. One of the trapped riders is an employee of the mine and a former mine-rescue professional, according to Mikesell.
Mikesell said he hopes to rescue the twelve trapped people by Thursday evening.
“We believe that the elevator will be intact,” he said, “but I want to make sure its perfectly safe before we do. And once that happens, then we’ll be able to bring them up.”
He said the Colorado Fire Department is on-scene and able to bring people up with a rope, but “it also subjects those first responders now to the threat and endangerment of doing so,” because of how far underground they would have to travel.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
On the TV news this morning they said that 23 people have been rescued. 1 person died.
I have been in that mine.
That would be a great tour, but I know these people just want to get out.
I wonder what happened that one person died? Was it from the elevator malfunctioning or was it a heart attack from the stress of the situation?
Not for the claustrophobic for sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4hzzepEcI
Up on cripple creek…
I mean down at cripple creek…
Been to this mine. They jam pack you into a lift to give you an authentic experience. When we went the guide rode on top of the lift. Guessing it crashed. Great tour, so sad about the accident.
All of the people have been rescued.
There’s a sign on the elevator that reads, Farting Not Allowed in the Elevator Cage.
Not on my bucket list. Then again, I don’t have a bucket list.
So glad they’re out! I remember, as a kid, blindly and willingly following our youth ministers on adventures which should have killed us all. Some of them were cave crawling. Later, as a TV guy, I did production in Colorado mines and caves. Ten years ago, in Mexico, I crawled down a mine hole into a long dirt cave, only three feet high, with spiders, on a treasure hunt reality TV show. I think back to all of that with disbelief as now I get nervous about being in a CT scanner tube! Insane.
Used to go to the Phoenix Mine near Georgetown, CO. You walk through, there’s an elevator but it’s not used for the tour. Large open areas inside, not claustrophobic. You can also pan gold outside. (I imagine they “salt” the creek.) Fun and educational experience. Big “shaker table” inside used to separate ore is neat.
I worked underground in a mine in Arizona where the only access was a vertical shaft with a hoist. The levels were at depths ranging from about 300 feet below surface on down to about 1100 feet (there were deeper levels, but they were flooded). I’d love to take this mine tour if I’m ever in Cripple Creek.
They won’t tell us what happened in any detail.
That means they are expecting and fearing the negligence and wrongful death lawsuits that will be filed.
Thanks! I read that they’re all out safe (save for one) now.
The most wonderful cave I’ve ever visited was Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, TN. The falls are inside of Lookout Mountain. We were on a family trip headed for FL and Sis and I pestered Dad until he gave in and took us there, too. We had a private tour - we hit it just perfectly. And it was pretty magical!
As an adult, you’d have to sedate and hog-tie me to go into a cave, but I sure loved them as a kid.
In 1963 I camped with my Boy Scout troop at Calico, a ghost town near Barstow, Calif. There were a number of mine shafts nearby, dug by silver miners in the 1880s, and we had fun exploring them without a thought of the danger of doing so. I don’t know if the mine shafts are still there.
That’s awesome! Did you ever find anything cool or interesting?
We didn’t find any artifacts—the area had probably been long since picked over. But we had a good time. On the way over, we had lunch at the historic Summit Inn at the top of the Cajon Pass, which was destroyed by a brushfire in 2016.
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