Cherry Coal Mine Disaster

St. Paul Coal Mine Office
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Cherry Mine Disaster Story
Story of Disaster by Steve Stout
The Fatal Day
Story in a Nutshell
Mine Site photos
Description of Cherry Mine
James Cherry
page two mine pics
Page Three Mine Pics
Page four Mine photos
Page Five Mine Photos
Page Six Mine Photos
Page Seven Mine Photos
Page Eight Mine Photos
Page Nine Mine Photos
Bell Signals etc.
Page Ten Mine photos
New Mine photos
Aerial Views
Cherry Mine Artifacts
Sunday Morning Crowds
Nativity/Nationalities
Cherry Mine Model
Model Pics Set Two
Twelve Heroes Story
John Flood: Hero
Alex Norberg (Hero)
Read about Eight-Day Men
John Thomas Brown
George Eddy
Which Story Deserves Movie?
The Memorial and More
Miners Tombstones
Cherry Depot
Soldier Trains and more
Morgue Tent
Names of Victims
Names of Victims section two
Coal Mining Words
Map Diagrams
No Respect For History
The Day the Tipple Fell
Farewell letters
Sam Howard's Letter
More on the Subject
"Oneness" Press release
TRAPPED: Karen Tintori's new book
MODEL RAILROADING MAG
Ray Tutaj Model Projects
Last Days of The Milwaukee Road
Milwaukee Road Car
St. Paul Coal Mine Office
Remembering the disaster.
100th Anniversary/Car Show
100th Anniversary Photos
100th Anniversary photos by Candy Brown
100th Anniversary pics from Karen Tintori
We need Your Help (1909 song)
Cherry Word Puzzle
Favorite Links
About me
Tour of Mine Site
Contact Me
100th Anniversary Documentary Available and More!
Cherry Mine Disaster Historical Society
T-Shirts, Sweatshirts etc.(100th anniv.)
STORE
Train Photo CDs Available
Train Video DVD's Available
Train -e-books NEW!
Workers Compensation
Cherry MIne Enthusiasts Remembered
How You Can Help

The Coal Mine office is yours if you move it off the land!
Cherry could not afford to move it back to the town, so the fate of the last piece of history of the mine is in jeopardy of being burned down.
 

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Today in the new millenium, the Cherry St Paul Coal Mine office is located in a remote farm in Bureau County. The owners asked me not to disclose the exact location. There are only a handful of people who are even aware of the fact that this historic little coal office of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.Paul Railroad still stands. I didn't know it until i met a couple older gents at the railroad museum in Mendota. They said to me, "Did you know that the structure is still standing?" I was surprised. They happened to know personally the family who had moved it from the coal mine site in 1928. It was pulled on a trailer built for such a move and pulled by a tractor to its new site.
  I of course got to know the family and they were kind enough to let me get proper dimensions of the coal office since i was building a model of the entire mine site in HO scale.
  It was originally clapboard siding and it was painted appropiately a Milwaukee Road Orange color. (see model pics)
   It was in this building that the coal miners signed in for work and picked up their paychecks here. It was the office for the managers and superintendents of the mine. It was this building that heard the shouts of distressed widows at the time of the disaster. When they went in to pick up the final check of thier loved ones, they shouted that they wanted their husbands back and not the money.
  When i actually stepped inside the structure a couple years ago i could imagine the busy hustling and bustling of employees at work and i could then hear the woman in distess weeping bitterly at the great loss of thier loved one(s) trying to muster up enough strength to reach for the check handed to them and meander to their little homes with a bleak future.
   It was also here that the widows stormed in to take the makeshift fans back from the officials. The trapped miners built these fans to help move air down in the depths of the mine. Some had inscribed their names on the wooden fans. The wives wanted something from their husbands and this was important that they keep them.
  I am glad that the structure still exists and maybe someday it could return to Cherry and be placed back in Cherry.  Wouldn't that be something! It is possible and I even heard there is an effort to do so. It would be a dream come true for me and many others. It would be a great visitors attraction and a good investment for Cherry. It is thier history and it is the only thing left now of the Cherry Mine since the state came in and leveled the fanhouse structure in 2003.  Maybe there was a higher reason why it was moved off the original site in 1928. It would be they only way it could be preserved for almost a hundred years now.  God has a plan for this building to return as a significant memorial to all those miners who lost their lives in this town back in 1909. So let up hope for the best in the year to come!
 
See the last picture on this page to view the coal office in its heyday at the mine.

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The St. Paul Coal Office secluded in yr 2000
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The office was moved off the site in 1928

Out this entrance walked many mine employees
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This entrance led to the tracks only 15 yards away

IINSIDE THE MINE OFFICE 2008
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IF THESE HARD WOOD MAPLE FLOORS COULD SPEAK

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Here is the office in the mines heyday
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Look at the roof overhang

We need to save this building.

Cherry Mine Office