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The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America's Richest Silver Mine
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.11962234230979691
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Crown
Manufacturer: Crown
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: March 01, 2005
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: March 01, 2005
Studio: Crown
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Editorial Review:
For nearly a century, Kellogg, Idaho, was home to America’s richest silver mine, Sunshine Mine. Mining there, as everywhere, was not an easy life, but regardless of the risk, there was something about being underground, the lure of hitting a deep vein of silver. The promise of good money and the intense bonds of friendship brought men back year after year. Mining is about being a man and a fighter in a job where tomorrow always brings the hope of a big score. On May 2, 1972, 174 miners entered Sunshine Mine on their daily quest for silver. Aboveground, safety engineer Bob Launhardt sat in his office, filing his usual mountain of federal and state paperwork. From his office window he could see the air shafts that fed fresh air into the mine, more than a mile below the surface. The air shafts usually emitted only tiny coughs of exhaust; unlike dangerously combustible coal mines, Sunshine was a fireproof hardrock mine, nothing but cold, dripping wet stone. There were many safety concerns at Sunshine, but fire wasn’t one of them. The men and the company swore the mine was unburnable, so when thick black smoke began pouring from one of the air shafts, Launhardt was as amazed as he was alarmed. When the alarm sounded, less than half of the dayshift was able to return to the surface. The others were trapped underground, too deep in the mine to escape. Scores of miners died almost immediately, frozen in place as they drilled, ate lunch, napped, or chatted. No one knew what was burning or where the smoke had come from. But in one of the deepest corners of the mine, Ron Flory and Tom Wilkinson were left alone and in total darkness, surviving off a trickle of fresh air from a borehole. The miners’ families waited and prayed, while Launhardt, reeling from the shock of losing so many men on his watch, refused to close up the mine or give up the search until he could be sure that no one was left underground.In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen looks beyond the intensely suspenseful story of the fire and rescue to the wounded heart of Kellogg, a quintessential company town that has never recovered from its loss. A vivid and haunting chapter in the history of working-class America, this is one of the great rescue stories of the twentieth century.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Deep Dark
This book is a great read. Gregg Olsen really did a fine job detailing the perspective from the miners and families point of view. A book that was hard to put down.
Rating: - Another world below the ground
I knew nothing about mining before reading this book. As for mine accidents, I've heard about a few, or many, but after they fade from the news in a few days, they'd fade from my mind. That will never happen again after reading this book.
Rating:  - The length of your life is infinitesimally small, read something of use
This book is based on a historically heartbreaking experience for many families in Idaho: a mining accident where many lives were lost. This book reads like a book of fiction where Olsen lacks character development pieces, something which is necessary to a good work written in this "style" even if the characters were real people. I am glad that the book was not written as a sort of "blood money cash-in," but it is not very useful in any sense. It was not very enjoyable simply to read the text, and ... Read More
Rating: - A Great Book
I picked up this book on a whim, and I'm really glad I did. The book tells the story of a tragic mine fire in Kellog, Idaho. It follows many of the men up to and through the horrific event. The book is a little slow to get going, but once it does, the story is well-told and suspensful (even knowing how it turns out).
Rating: - A 'Deeply' Engrossing Book...
I could not put it down! Olsen has outdone himself on this one...and brought humanity and compassion to his descriptions of the miners lost and found in the disaster. Well written and paced, it is a descriptive and fitting tribute to the heroes of Sunshine Mine.
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