Originally posted by Stuart
Great writeup Craig! I'm glad you were able to get out to the Honerine! Its a fun mine and is very historically significant, you referenced some of this with the first telephone in the county comment 
You should do some research on Captain Conner and the Honering Mine. It is quite ironic that I was just telling you about Etherington and you just happened to visit the grisly scene of his last folly later that day. I would love to sit down with his buddy Corey some day and get the real version of what happened down there, I have heard three different versions of the story and don't know which one to believe. I do know for a fact that Corey and Jeremiah climbed, descended, and squeezed into some of the most sketchy of places inside all the mines out in that area. Just yesterday I dropped down that winze with Miah and Crystal and right at the bottom found the initials JE 95 and "Greatest Miner Ever" Corey B. I'm not sure how they got down that winze, but I highly doubt it was done with the proper safety gear. It really is too bad it all ended for them the way it did.
The days of visiting this mine are limited, Unfortunately the DOGM is planning on sealing this mine up permanently this summer in their "Kessler" project.
You should do some research on Captain Conner and the Honering Mine. It is quite ironic that I was just telling you about Etherington and you just happened to visit the grisly scene of his last folly later that day. I would love to sit down with his buddy Corey some day and get the real version of what happened down there, I have heard three different versions of the story and don't know which one to believe. I do know for a fact that Corey and Jeremiah climbed, descended, and squeezed into some of the most sketchy of places inside all the mines out in that area. Just yesterday I dropped down that winze with Miah and Crystal and right at the bottom found the initials JE 95 and "Greatest Miner Ever" Corey B. I'm not sure how they got down that winze, but I highly doubt it was done with the proper safety gear. It really is too bad it all ended for them the way it did. The days of visiting this mine are limited, Unfortunately the DOGM is planning on sealing this mine up permanently this summer in their "Kessler" project.
When they went exploring this particular shaft, they completely underestimated it's depth. They thought that it was only 50 feet deep connecting to the lower level that the other decline shafts in the mine connects to. Jeremiah used a tow rope that he had in his pack, and tied off to the boiler that you guys have seen in that room. He then tied it around his legs and waste to act as a harness. The plan was to go down as far as he could to see if he could get to the bottom, or at least see the bottom. He got down about 30 feet when his so called "harness" was coming loose. He found a large timber that was horizontally wedged across the shaft to rest his body weight on while he readjusted. At this point, both Cory and Jeremiah could still see each other quite well. Cory watched and helped by shining light for Jeremiah when the timber began to slide to one side. Jeremiah looked up at Cory in fear at the very second it broke loose. The rest it to disturbing to tell.
Cory called out to him for a few minutes, assuming that the shaft was only about 50 feet deep. With no reply, he finally left to get help from 2 friends that were waiting outside. For 2 days, Cory believed that Jeremiah was still alive, having no clue that he had actually fell 650 feet down. The search and rescue guys finally identified the shaft and it's true depth, and tried to access the shaft from another mines decline shaft that was said to merge to it at the 600 foot level, but had no luck finding it.
Him and Jeremiah's uncle who was a salt lake city fireman, worked for over 12 hours straight to pull his body out. There was a lot of debris and wedged timbers that had to be hoisted up to open the shaft before they could pull his body up. The condition of Jeremiah's body traumatized Cory. He has a hard time telling that part of the story. To this day, he says the event still haunts him.
to constantly reformulating plans to deal with the "what if" scenarios adventure can throw at you. Thanks for your insight on this compelling subject.
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