In his native France the first of May was a legal holiday and he would observe this day the same way.

Wreps' decision saved his life. He was at home, instead of at his usual post in the Winter Quarters Mine when an explosion rocked the No. 4 mine.

Had he been deep in the coal- laden shaft, he would have suffered the horrific death that at least 200 of his coworkers suffered that day.

Nearly 100 years after the disaster, The Scofield Mining Disaster still ranks as the single worst loss of life in Utah history and as the fourth worst mining disaster in U.S. history. Even today, the calamity still lingers in the minds of descendants and long-time residents of this small community in Carbon County.

"They have always remembered," says Ann Carter, who runs a bed and breakfast with her husband Woody in Scofield. Born here, she remembers hearing stories of her grandfather Harry Williams, a miner who was part of the rescue team that brought bodies out of the mine.

In 1996, Carter moved back to Scofield and with the help of her husband, took up the cause of making certain the event is not forgotten.

With the Carbon and Utah Historical Societies pledging their support, the couple's first project is restoring the wooden markers of the miners buried in the city cemetery. The old markers are not only weathered with age, but many of the names on them can no longer be deciphered.

"It's a big puzzle," Woody Carter said of the task of trying to compare the names of miners they can identify against the old records of who's buried in the cemetery. And that's not the only mystery the Carters and other historians face as they study the disaster.

A question that may never be solved is just how many died in the Winter Quarters Mine that day.

"People weren't even sure who was in the mine," Woody Carter said. Miners worked as individual contractors and were paid based on their coal production, so no official record was kept on who was working on a specific day.

Newspapers at the time reported that anywhere from 200 up to 240 men had died. The Standard-Examiner, known then as the Semi- Weekly Standard, said in its May 4 edition that 225 bodies had been removed from the mine, the last taken out being "mangled beyond recognition."

The Standard also reported on some in the Top of Utah that lost family. Mrs. Fred Brind, of Ogden, lost three brothers to the mine while Kanesville's John W. Hunter, 75, experienced even more personal tragedy losing seven relatives two sons, three grandsons and three nephews that ranged in age from 15 to 51.

J.A. Lambert, of Ogden, who traveled with the Hunter bodies as they were transported to Ogden, was touched first-hand by what he saw.

"No tongue or pen can describe the horror of the situation down here," Lambert said, quoted in James W. Dilley's History of the Scofield Mine: A Concise Account. "I have been through the entire war of rebellion, but I can tell you it was nothing to what is down in Scofield, from the fact that the women were not present on the battlefield."

Many of the miners who died were immigrants who had come to Utah in search of the economic opportunities the mine provided and not for religious reasons, according to Historian Craig Fuller who works for the Utah Historical Society. Of those immigrants, the Finns lost 66 men to the explosion and an astonishing number that caught Fuller's attention.

"My interest in Scofield began with my interest in the Finnish immigrants," Fuller said, noting the group that came to Scofield for mining is the earliest record of Finns in Utah.

As he combs the history of the disaster, Fuller has found harrowing stories of tragedy. Perhaps none has been more tragic than that of the Louma family from Finland.

"They lost five sons and three nephews," Fuller said. The Loumas had been reunited just three months earlier, when the son's parents moved to Utah from Finland. Fuller struggles to comprehend what the parents must have felt in their loss, thousands of miles from their homeland.

"The parents could not speak English, so how do you communicate?" Fuller said. In their grief, the Loumas immediately moved back to Finland.

While Fuller says that rumors circulated at the time that a Finnish miner caused the accident, no one is certain how the explosion started. One theory is that blasting powder ignited coal dust in the No. 4 mine. Those who heard the 10:20 a.m. blast thought it was probably cannon fire in celebration of the May Day festivities planned for that day, unaware of what was happening in the mine.

"The coal mine acted just like a gun barrel," said Ted Helsten in a documentary "The American Experience: America 1900," which aired on PBS. Helsten, of Salt Lake City, is the brother of Ann Carter and adds that those miners who weren't killed by the inferno soon suffocated. The sheer force is demonstrated in the fact that John Wilson, atop his horse just outside the mine, was thrown 820 feet. Miraculously, Wilson survived while the horse perished.

On May 28, just weeks after mourners had buried their dead, the Winter Quarters mine went back into operation. While the move might seem heartless, Fuller notes that there was still a high demand for coal needed to fuel the emerging industrial age. Proof of that fact is that the mine had a contract to produce 2,000 ton of the black rock per day.

"Anywhere where there is loss of life, you have to pick up quickly and continue on, though it's not a pleasant thing," Fuller said.

Pondering the immense tragedy nearly a century later may not be any more pleasant, but the efforts of the Carters, Fuller and Helstens continue to assure that future generations will know the significance of May 1, 1900.

1. Samuel Wreps was a native of ?

England
France
Germany
Finland

2. At least ____ died in the horrific disaster.

100
200
300
400

3. One theory to the explosion suggests that ____ .

a steam vent exploded ripping the mine apart
a geothermal hotspring exploded
blasting ignited coal dust deep within the mine
An oil lamp exploded causing a chain reaction

4. The mine shaft acted like a gun barrel. John Wilson was thrown ____ feet through the air and lived!

25
180
375
820

5. Why is it hard to determine exactly how many people died in the disaster?

Some miners were independent contractors, and a record of their work was not kept.
The explosion was so powerful, not much was left.
Miners didn't wear name tags.
A few miners had taken a break before the explosion and were not in the mine when it blew.

Your score is out of 5.