Oct. 25, 1999

Almost a century ago, the worst mine disaster in Utah history claimed more than 200 lives.

Now an effort to honor the victims of that tragedy has suffered a major setback, oddly enough, because of a garage fire in the nearby town of Scofield.

John Hollenhorst has the story.

This was the day Scofield cemetery was supposed to start getting a new look, volunteers planning to restore wooden grave markers, all dating back to one of Utah's saddest days.

Woody Carter/Scofield: "There were 105 widows created that day. Over 200 fatherless children."

It happened here 100 years ago next spring.

Disaster in the Winter Quarters mine. A massive coal dust explosion. To this day, know one knows how many men and boys died. But it was at least 200, many from foreign countries, dozens from Finland.

Jussi Kemppainen/Temporary Utah Resident: "For a Finn, to see something like that, it breaks my heart. I feel the time. I feel the sacrifice. That's why this is important to me."

For months, John Ward has been making new grave markers, using his wood-working skills to shape mahogany into memorials. He remembers visiting the cemetery as a boy, the son of a coal miner.

John Ward/Murray: "But it would bother me to go there and see these head markers falling over in later years, as I grew up."

Briefly a coal miner himself, he has a sense of solidarity with men and boys who worked under unsafe conditions. Unions and government later forced the mines to become safety conscious, he says, and disasters like Scofield paved the way.

John Ward: "Yes it did, because people were able to see what can happen when there's neglect, when nobody cares. They thought more of the horses that pulled the coal out of the mine than they did the men."

But last Wednesday morning, disaster struck on a small scale, here in Scofield. A kerosene heater touched off a garage fire. Thirty of the mahogany grave markers went up in smoke.

Woody Carter/Scofield: "It was heartbreaking to see that go, and to know those markers were there, especially."

Now they plan to start all over.

John Ward: "After the initial shock, I decided that we can do nothing else but continue."

They're hoping to finish in time for a memorial service May 1st, the 100th anniversary of a very bleak day.