Sunshine Mine Disaster

Nobody has settled what started the fire. The Bureau of Mines blamed spontaneous combustion of refuse near scrap timber; Bob Launhardt, the mine's own safety engineer, argued for decades that polyurethane foam sprayed as a ventilation sealant fed the fire and its poisonous smoke, a material Britain had banned from its mines in 1969. The bureau's report also found that some company self-rescuers had not been kept usable. Representative Ken Hechler called the deaths industrial murder and accused the bureau of a cozy relationship with the industry, and safety enforcement passed to new agencies.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sunshine Miners Memorial — steps away
  A steel miner raises his drill at the mouth of Big Creek, above ninety-one small headstones.
• Pulaski Tunnel Trail — 7.1 mi
  The mine tunnel where a ranger held his crew at gunpoint while the 1910 fire burned over them.
• Cataldo Mission — 15 mi
  The Schitsu'umsh built it, the 1873 reservation line left it outside, and every August 15 they come back.

More markers nearby

• Bunker Hill Mine — 4.1 mi
• Wallace — 6.4 mi
• Mining Wars — 8.9 mi
• Levi and May Hutton — 10 mi