Wheeler Gulch Tramway Accident, July 30, 1921

Description

On July 30, 1921, at around 5 p.m., seven men were killed and three were seriously injured in Wheeler Gulch, five miles north of Parachute, Colorado, when a tramway cable slipped loose at the Schuyler-Doyle Shale Company mine. Twelve passengers had boarded the car, the majority of whom had just started working for the mine that very morning. As the car started down the slope, the cable became dislodged from the post it was anchored to, launching the tram down the 2000 foot incline, scattering men and machinery as it went. One man was reportedly killed when he was flung from the car and rolled a quarter of a mile down the slope. The car had picked up enough speed to jump from the track and was smashed to pieces when it reached the boulders at the bottom of the gulch. Initial reports that six men were killed were corrected when rescue crews uncovered the body of Tony Mazina, a worker who noted the unsafe conditions of the tram and refused to ride, instead chosing to walk down the slope. His body was discovered in a mutilated state, apparently severed across the stomach by the cable as it whipped down. Identifying and naming victims came with some difficulties due to the condition of the bodies, the aliases used by some workers, and their lack of local connections. The known victims included: Mark Reber, age 34, Salida Louis Felice, also reported as Luigi Fellico and Lewis Fallice, age 22, Salida George Heins, also reported as Heine and Hinds, age 30, Glenwood Springs James Botts, DeBeque Tony Mazina, unknown address, possibly from Glenwood Springs Ernest Maderson, Jacksonville, Illinois Frank Walter, also reported as Frank Walters, age 17 or 18, Jacksonville, Illinois Two additional names, A. J. Lowe and Elmer C. Engle, appear in some reports in place of Tony Mazina and Ernest Maderson. Those seriously injured included: Nick Vasso, Glenwood Springs, lacerated head, back, arms, and hands Ray G. Lucas, Fairbury NE, broken shoulder and fractured skull James C. Ryan, unknown address, injured legs and internal injuries Miraculously, three workers, including an unidentified 17-year-old, survived with only minor scratches and bruises. James Botts was survived by his wife and two children in De Beque. The other victims were not known to have families in the area. George Heins had a sister in New York, and a mother, father, and sister who he supported in Germany. The Garfield County coroner, Dr. L.G. Clark of Glenwood Springs, convened an investigation and impaneled a jury to release its findings. Their decision, as it appears in the Rifle Telegram of Thursday, August 4, 1921, stated: "We, the jury, render the following verdict, viz. that the men met their death on Saturday, July 30th, 1921, at a point in the oil shale workings operated by the Schuyler-Doyle Company, by the breaking of the cable, and also "dead-man" at the head of the cable, and also general faulty construction of the structure which was the means and cause of said accident." Karl Schuyler and Jimmy Doyle, the financiers and superintendents of the mine, faced few consequences for their negligence. They abandoned the project in Wheeler Gulch but continued to work as business partners in the oil industry, and was considered a key witness in the Teapot Dome Scandal. Schuyler would go on to become a major figure in the Colorado Republican party and the oil industry, and was elected to to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate in 1932, defeating Walter Walker, who was appointed to temporarily fill the vacancy. He held Senate office for fewer only 90 days before he lost the election for the full term to Alva B. Adams. Shortly after, in an apparent act of fate, he was fatally injured after he was struck by a car in July 1933 while walking in Central Park, New York City.