Heavener coal mine anomaly

[wamccormick]

The removable tops I was referring to were the ones on the old nail kegs from a long time ago. Other goods were also put into such barrels and had removable lids. Before the advent of rolled tin, wooden barrels were the norm for storing just about everything. There were no cardboard boxes, no steel crates, no tin barrels and of course no plastic containers.

W.A. McCormick

[hounddogz]

If we were close enough we'd like to visit that mine

[wamccormick]

Since I am unable to figure out how to attach a photo, I will give you a typed version of Atlas Almon Mathis' statement about the Heavener coal mine.

(Written by W.A. McCormick as stated by Atlas A. Mathis. W.A. McCormick{signature} 3-22-68)

In the year 1928 I, Atlas Almon Mathis, was working in coal mine No. 5 located two miles north of Heavener Oklahoma. This was a shaft mine and they told us it was two miles deep. [I have since learned that this mine had two levels: One level at 1800 feet and the really deep one at 2 miles] The mine was so deep that they let us down into it on an elevator. The elevator was released at the top and fell so fast that I was weightless and my dinner bucket would turn upside down and the bail would hold it to my arm, however, the gallon of water in the bottom of it would not spill spill out. This elevator would fall at least several seconds [he told me "several minutes" and I thought that would be enough time to travel several miles, not 2 miles, so I reasoned with him and got the change to "at least several seconds"] at that rate, and then they gradually slowed the elevator till it stopped at the bottom. They pumped air down to us, it was so deep. [He told me many times about the huge steam engine that pumped the air. He told me that mules were also let down at the same speed, and that they panicked hysterically every time.]

Tom Davidson was in charge of the mine. Lee Elders, Mont Claiborn, Bill Gusky, Oat Dawes, John Raiborn, and a young fellow by the name of Mattox were working there also.

One night I shot 4 shots in room 24 of this mine and the next morning there were several concrete blocks laying in the [Page end] signature - Atlas. A. Mathis

2 3-22-68

room. These blocks were about 12" cubes and were so smooth and polished on the outside that they would serve as a mirror on all 6 sides yet they were full of gravel because I chipped one of them open with my pick and it was plain concrete inside. As I started to timber the room up, it caved in and I barely escaped. When I came back after the cave-in, a solid wall of these polished blocks was left exposed. [On another occasion Atlas told me that he looked through the hole he had blasted in the wall, and there was open space beyond. He did not have time to explore it.] About 100 to 150 yards further down our air core another miner struck this same wall or one very similar. Immediately they pulled us out of this wing of the mine and forbade us to tell anything we had seen.

This mine was closed in the fall of 1928 and the crew went to Kentucky and I think they were in No. 11 there. In the summer and fall of 1929 they won a prize for being such good miners and their pictures came out in the paper. I don't remember what town it was near or the name of the paper.

Also before I started working on this crew they had a similar experience in mine 24 at Wilberton, Oklahoma in about the
[Page end] signature - Atlas A. Mathis

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year 1926. They said they dug up two odd things: One was a solid block of silver in the shape of a barrel and the other was a bone that was about the size of an elephant. I don't know if they meant only in diameter or if in diameter and in length, but they did say it had nuckles on each end. This silver block had the prints of the staves one it and the saw that first struck it cut off a chip on the edge at one end. The miners saw the silver dust the saw was pulling out and went about to dig out the block. What was done with these things I do not know. In the case of the blocks in my room in No. 5, I don't think any were kept.

W.A. McCormick A.A. Mathis
Box 195 F-HC Rt. 1
Henderson, Tenn Water Valley, Miss. 38965


signature - Atlas. A. Mathis

[Willard]

Thanks for posting that W. A. Good to see you post again. What I wouldn't give to pump out that old mine and excavate.

[jrile009]

I know this is an old topic but I just recently came across it. Im curious if anyone can tell me where this mine shaft is located exactly. I live about an hour from Heavner, I have scuba if its flooded. Im always looking for something new. I always say if you truly want to learn anything you have to question everything