{"id":82,"date":"2010-04-05T09:44:52","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T14:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=82"},"modified":"2010-04-05T09:44:52","modified_gmt":"2010-04-05T14:44:52","slug":"a-plunge-down-a-sixty-foot-shaft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"A Plunge Down a Sixty-Foot Shaft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day hundreds, if not thousands, of automobiles rumble through downtown Joplin.\u00a0 Most drivers\u00a0 go about their business without a thought that there may be empty mine shafts below their wheels.\u00a0 We here at Historic Joplin do \u2014 which is not to say we’re afraid of our vehicle plunging into a gaping chasm on Main Street, but in an area riddled with mine shafts, tunnels, and sinkholes, the ground giving way does happen from time to time.\u00a0 Mine shafts even presented a threat to folks, who despite having a familiarity with the dangers of working in the mines, had the misfortune to make a misstep.\u00a0 Or, in the case of James \u201cJim\u201d T.\u00a0 Bodine, the wrong way home.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1904, Jim Bodine was on horseback herding the family cow home for the night.\u00a0 As he passed south of Twenty-Sixth Street, he had to ride through some brush when he and his horse unexpectedly encountered an abandoned mine shaft.\u00a0 Bodine, who was a, \u201cwell known and very popular mine superintendent and operator,\u201d undoubtedly knew about mine safety, but riding your horse into a mine shaft in the middle of the night was something he had thought little about up to this point.\u00a0 Bodine’s horse pitched forward into the shaft.\u00a0 It managed to dig its forelegs into the mine shaft so that it seemed as if it would be able to get both itself and Bodine out of the shaft.\u00a0 Unfortunately, its legs buckled and the two plunged sixty feet into a water-filled mine shaft.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

Abandoned mines poise significant danger risk in any mining area, such as this one located in California.<\/p><\/div>\n

Both man and horse surfaced with Bodine still in the saddle.\u00a0 The horse struggled to keep its nose above the water.\u00a0 Bodine tried to sit in the saddle as long as he could, but realized the horse could throw him at any time, so he slipped into the water.\u00a0 His head throbbing from a bump to his head, Bodine managed to climb two or three feet onto the walls of the mine shaft.\u00a0 As the strength began to leave his arms, he began to cry for help.\u00a0 There he remained for over an hour yelling for help.\u00a0 In the water below Bodine, his horse was \u201cplunging and striking his feet right and left.\u201d Gritting his teeth, he sank his fingers \u201cinto the sides of the shaft as far as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Bodine, a Mrs.\u00a0 Carter was passing by when she heard his cries for help.\u00a0 She \u201cran to the shaft, shouted a word of encouragement to Mr.\u00a0 Bodine, and then ran for help.\u201d Mrs.\u00a0 Carter brought James Ingram, D.E.\u00a0 Krokroski, and H.\u00a0 Dillon back to the mine shaft.\u00a0 There the three men lowered a rope to Bodine which he tied around his waist.\u00a0 Together the men pulled Bodine up to the surface where he was rushed home.\u00a0 Four doctors were summoned, but found that Bodine was in good shape despite his harrowing ordeal.<\/p>\n

Bodine later told a Globe<\/em> reporter, \u201cThere was a time when I thought I would have to give up and fall into the water.\u00a0 After Mrs.\u00a0 Carter looked into the shaft and then ran for assistance it seemed hours before assistance came.\u00a0 I felt my strength gradually giving away, and it seemed that every minute would be my last.\u201d Even as the rope was being lowered to him, Bodine confessed, \u201cI thought I would not e able to keep my position until I could get it tied, but it is remarkable how a man’s strength will stay by him when his life is at stake.\u201d As for his horse, several men tried to extricate it, but as of the newspaper’s deadline, they had not been able to pull it out of the shaft.<\/p>\n

Source: The Joplin Globe<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every day hundreds, if not thousands, of automobiles rumble through downtown Joplin.\u00a0 Most drivers\u00a0 go about their business without a thought that there may be empty mine shafts below their wheels.\u00a0 We here at Historic Joplin do \u2014 which is not to say we’re afraid of our vehicle plunging into a gaping chasm on Main […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[333,30,32,331,52,330,31,61,332,68,334,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}