Esmeralda Herald (Aurora), 7/12/1879:
Giant Power Explosion. The Giant Powder Magazine of the Standard Mine at Bodie Blows Up – Many Lives Lost – Buildings Shattered to Atoms – Adjoining Hoisting Works Blows to Fragments – A Scene of Wreck and Ruin.
On Thursday evening at about half-past seven o’lock a sound as of a heavy blast was heard by many people here, and in a few moments afterward a dense blue cloud was seen drifting over Mount Braly.
People who witnessed it pronounced, “it a huge whirlwind, though at the time scarcely a breath of air was stirring in the town.” The “whirlwind” had finally drifted off to the Northeast.
Nothing particular was “thought of the phenomenon,” until the Telegraph Operator here was informed, “that a terrible explosion of the Giant Powder Magazine at the old works of the Standard mine at Bodie.”
The Concussion was so great that it shook the whole Town like a severe Earthquake, breaking windows, bottles, looking-glasses, etc., and throwing doors open and shut.
The streets of Bodie were soon filled with an immense throng of people inquiring for the Cause. An immense ‘column of smoke” was seen ascending “hundreds of feet into the air” at the Standard Mine. This was followed by a General Alarm of Fire, from the whistles of the different Hoisting Works.
The Fire Department responded, and a rush was made for the hill by people on foot, on horseback and in wagons.
The Shock was distinctly felt in Bridgeport, twenty-four miles west, and immediately the citizens there, telegraphed to Bodie to learn the cause.
Upon investigation it was ascertained that the damage was very great, nearly all of the Boarding Houses, Dwellings and Cabins in the vicinity of the Explosion, having been torn to atoms.
Fifteen or twenty persons killed, while forty or fifty were wounded, more or less severely, some of them women and children.
The ‘List of Deaths is, at latest accounts, reduced to six, Frank Fiel, William O’Brien, Charles Malloy, Hugh McMillan, John McCarthy, and Thomas Flavin.
The number of the wounded will reach forty, a great many of them only trifling, but some in a dangerous condition.
Every attention is given to the Wounded Miners, who are quartered at different places on the hill and in Town.
Bodie wears a very quiet look, business being nearly suspended, and Flags at half-mast on all the Hoisting works.
