Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 38
Q: Straight in?
A: No, angled.
Q: Angled.
A: And you'd put the powder and everything and that would blow that
right out that way.
End of Tape Two, Side One.
A: Then that would be a vein. They would take that, shoot on that side,
they would drill a hole on that side and only deeper, deep as this would
allow, and then that would be a vacancy here for this shot to come up.
Otherwise it would be on what they call on the solid. That's when you
had a shot on the solid, that was a blow, that would blow a shot back and
create a dust and have a dust explosion. And that's what Panther Creek
Mine--I told a fellow there one day I says I was driving, I was riding
trips for Bill Daugherty.
Q: You were riding what?
A: Trips.
Q: Trips?
A: Trips, that is a trip of cars, coal mine cars. They were being
loaded.
Q: You told this fellow?
A: I told him, 1 said, "If I ever saw a shot as that one, that's one."
He says, "Oh, what do you know about coal mining, Mr. Old Fellow you?" I
said, "I know enough that I have got my license to dig coal if I wanted
to and that looks like it's on the solid to me." And he sayd, "Oh, go on
and tend to your business," and so I did. And that shot was a windy shot
and that's the one where that night Lon Coski got killed.
Q: Lon Coski.
A: Yes.
Q: How old a person was he?
A: Oh, he was about 45-50 years old. He was a shotfire.
Q: And he had a family here in Auburn.
A: He lit the shot that killed him, but then the other fellow packed the
shot, he drilled them and tamped the shot that killed him. Anyway. . . .