50th anniversary of Sunshine MIne Disaster

Section:Gallery

Sun., May 1, 2022

A crowd awaits outside the Sunshine Mine as rescue efforts continued in May 1972.

Cowles Publishing
Rescue team members prepare knapsack rescue kits with oxygen tanks. Attempts to find trapped miners continued for more than a week in May 1972. The fire reportedly broke out at the 3200 foot level in shaft not mined since the 1940s.

Cowles Publishing
Donald J. Morris is in basket, set to descend into the Sunshine Mine. At left is Wayne Kanack.

Cowles Publishing
Large gatherings of relatives await word on loved ones in the Sunshine Mine accident in May 1972.

Cowles Publishing
U.S. Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton, meets with people gathered outside the Sunshine Mine in May 1972.

Cowles Publishing
Miners await word of friends amid a fleet of stretchers and ambulances. The May 1972 disaster drew the attention of high level officials and the national news media.

Chris Brown
Tom Wilkinson climbs from the rescue cage in the No. 12 shaft of the Sunshine Mine after being rescued days after fire, smoke and carbon monoxide killed dozens of his fellow miners.

Cowles Publishing
Tammye Poulson hugs her daughter Nicki, 7, in this photo from 1992. Poulson told her about a friend who died in the Sunshine Mine accident in May 1972.

Jesse Tinsley