The Dangers

Many industries suffer the unfortunate reality of injury and death and slate quarrying was certainly no exception. This was an industry that employed explosives and very large machinery to extract incredibly heavy material from deep holes. Injury and death were a common occurrence. The following is a small set of directly quoted news articles about injuries and deaths in the quarries of Pennsylvania's Slate Belt district .

Death and injury did not discriminate or recognize social status.

Practical Stone Quarrying: A Manual for Managers, Inspectors, and Owners of Quarries, and for Students

1913

Because in laying out a quarry it has sometimes happened that valuable machinery and workshops have been so placed as to become involved in a rock slide of the nature. News has only just come to hand of such a disaster in a Pennsylvania slate quarry, in which a rock slide carried away a boiler house, two boilers, blacksmith's shop, and other erections, and generally did such an amount of damage that the quarry will not be in working order for the next six months.

Slate quarry cave-in swallows equipment

1914:

"More than 1,000 tons of slate, rock and earth slid from the side of the Pennsylvania quarry, at Edelman's, Plainfield Township, on Saturday, making a tremendous roar. Fortunately there was no one at work in the quarry at the time. A considerable amount of machinery was carried down with the slide, and it will be some time before the quarry is cleared."

1920

Slate Quarries

Reports from quarries producing slate in 1920 show 75 operating companies at whose quarries 3,496 men were employed. A total of 1,009,244 shift were worked by all employees an average of 289 shifts per man. The figures represent an increase of 123 men, 165,673 shifts, and 39 working days per employee, as compared with 1919. Seventy-six per cent of the total shifts were worked inside the quarries and 24 per cent outside the quarries. The two leading slate-producing States, Pennsylvania and Vermont, showed a notable increase in total shifts, as compared with the previous year.

Accidents caused 5 deaths and 364 injuries, a fatality rate of 1.49. The injury rate was higher at 108.20 per 1000 of 300-day workers, or roughly 11% which is unfortunately an increase of 1% compared to the previous year with rates of 1.78 killed and 98.51 per 1000 of 300-day workers injured which works out to 10%.

Source: Quarry accidents in the United States: during the calendar year 1920

An employee of the Prudential Slate Company in Danielsville attempted to play a practical joke on his fellow quarry men and became a victim of his own efforts. While the intended joke was not stated, this individual accidentally dropped a lighted match into an empty powder keg which still had a small amount of charge. The outcome was a man set on fire and permanently scarred.

Express-Times

1948

John Parry, 82, and 10 other men were trapped in the former Stephen Jackson Co. quarry in Pen Argyl after thousands of tons of slate and rock slid into the 475-foot deep quarry. John Parry was a recently married 21-year-old when he took a job at the Stephen Jackson Co. quarry in south Pen Argyl in 1948. He knew the job was dangerous and was aware of a crack in the quarry's east wall. On May 21, 1949, Parry and 10 other quarrymen ventured 475 feet into the hole to begin their shift. After a night of heavy rain, the cracked wall collapsed killing Joseph T. Heatter, 34, of Wind Gap, and seriously injuring four other men. "We weren't down there 10 minutes until the wall broke." said Parry, who claims to be the last survivor of the quarry collapse. "I don't know if we thought about (the crack) or not. You take things for granted after a while. When the dust cleared, we started getting the injured out of the hole." The hole boss, Onofrio L. Maio of Pen Argyl, broke both legs and later had one amputated. Daniel Finelli of Bangor broke an arm, and Jesse C. Zucal of Wind Gap had a bloodied head. Angelo Santantonio of Pen Argyl was pinned to a wall by an overturned pulley box that broke his pelvis. Parry and other workers spent days searching for Heatter, a husband and father of four, until the quarry was condemned. "It was dangerous," Parry said. "Who can say whose fault it was?"No regulations existed for quarries and mines in the 1940s.

September 13, 1962

The Pocono Record

OF THE QUARRY--An arrow points to the general area where the bodies of Daniel DeLong and Edward Eickhoff were found after a rock slide struck the workmen without any fore warning. Seven other employees of the slate Company were injured.

Spectators -- People come from near and far to see the site where two men lost their lives and seven others were injured. The scene is the Albion Vein Slate Co.

December 5, 1967

The Pocono Record

James Brinton, 22, of 493 Railroad Ave., Pen Argyl, was killed instantly Monday at 9:10 a.m. when he was struck by a block of slate while working here in the Albion Vein Slate Co. quarry, where he was employed as a holeman. According to a spokesman for the company, Brinton's chest was crushed when he was struck by a block of slate being moved. A pulley pin slipped and the block caught Brinton and pinned him against the south drift of the quarry. At the time of the accident Brinton was barring a block of slate. Also injured in the accident was Ernest Dorshimer of 481 Railroad Ave., Pen Argyl. Dorshimer received a broken left leg and was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill. Dorshimer was struck by the swinging block. Dr. John Turlzo was the attending physician and acted as Northampton County Depuy Coroner. Turlzo pronounced Brinton dead at the scene and listed a crushed chest and massive internal hemorrhage as the cause of death. Born in Easton, Brinton was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Parry. In addition to his mother and step-father he is survived by four half-sisters, Miss Yvonne Parry, Miss Melinda Parry, Miss Rose Marie Parry, and Miss Michelle Parry, all at home, and two half-brothers, Richard G. Parry Jr., and John Richard Parry II, both at home, and his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Ducey of Pen Argyl. Services will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Swoyer 'Funeral Home with Rev. Charles F. Montgomery officiating.

And it Continues to this Day....

Since the demise of the slate industry in the Slate Belt district and the closing of the quarries themselves, the holes continue to pose a threat. People continue to get killed at the sites either as a result of trespassing and poor judgement. Children as young as 8 as well as adult have been killed in recent years.

The Morning Call

July 18, 2016

BANGOR — A 20-year-old New Jersey man was pronounced dead Sunday afternoon at a popular and dangerous Bangor quarry, according to Northampton County Coroner Zachary Lysek. The victim is identified as Andrew J. Grennan, 20, of Howell, New Jersey. Grennan was swimming at the abandoned slate quarry with seven other young people on Sunday, Lysek said. Lysek said Grennan's cause and manner of death are pending additional medical testing.