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| Possible Staged Photograph |
The
photograph you see above is the "official" photograph of the final message from the miners of the Argonaut Mine that has been circulated all these years, although this is not entirely accurate. In reality, it is actually
believed to be a staged photo, made after the miners bodies has been found, and
done so by a photographer for the San Francisco News by photographer, W. Aird
MacDonald. You see, there are two photographs, and one appears to be more
authentic than the other.
How do I
know this?
Well,
this information comes from the research of the one and only late Amador County
Historian, Larry Cenotto which was published in the Ledger-Dispatch in 1997. He
happened to stumble upon an old photograph in the archives over 25 years ago, that
appeared to be similar but not exact, which prompted his further investigation.
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| Original Photograph |
“The last
message written by the entombed 47 miners” was written below the photograph, with
a stamped imprint on the back that said, “Jackson Studio, Jackson, Cal.” It was
believed that a local photographer had the chance to photograph the original message
before MacDonald.
After carefully analyzing the photo, Cenotto determined that the photo found in Amador County archives was more than likely the original photo of the writing on the wall left by the miners, which was clearly made under duress by the look of the writing.
The cleaner, more visibly clear writing that was circulated by the
news media which spells out Fessel’s name on it, had to have been staged later
and it clearly done with more precision, which would be the last thing a miner,
choking on carbon monoxide gases, fearing for his life in the dark would be
doing.
The photo
now believed to be the original message, only states the words: “3 o’clock gas
getting strong, 4 o’clock Fez,” as if the writer of the message perhaps lost
consciousness prior to finishing his inscription on the wall.
But why
stage the photo?
Cenotto
suspected that something had happened to the original writing, which forced
them to recreate it. Another question to
be asked is, how did Fessel’s body end up on the 4650 level, far away from and
outside of the barricade where the other miners were discovered, if he had in
fact scribbled that message on the wall?
Again,
Cenotto believed that since Fessel was working alone on the 4650 level that
night doing timber work, which was confirmed by those who worked at the mine
that night, he would have had no idea what was going on in the other part of
the mine and had no chance to make an escape before the fumes and the smoke
reached him.
“The
message, therefore was that “F:z” or “Fezzel” was not with them and rescuers
need look for him elsewhere.”—Larry Cenotto’s quote.
Another
thing I would like to point out is that I personally enlarged copies of Bill
Fessel’s naturalization papers and his draft registry card, and I looked at his
signature on both documents. Despite what some claim, including Fessel's son who was interviewed and claimed that Fessel signed his
name with two ‘z’s is actually inaccurate. In fact, both signatures I examined, signed by Fessel, were signed in cursive, and showed the
letter “s” twice, not z.
So, there were a lot of questions here. From the extra brass tag found among the 46 miners behind the barricade that didn't match any of the miners on duty that night, to the extra set of clothing discovered in the change house, and then the mystery behind the two photographs of the miner's message, it appeared that the more I dug into this story, the more questions I was coming up with, rather than answers.
Still, I kept digging....
There were inquiries & hearings, plus speculation galore. Some argued they should have went down the Muldoon shaft to reach the men in time, some argued that they should have sent the skip down to at least attempt to rescue some of the men, despite the fact that eventually the phone and bell system was disrupted by the fire, and thus the hoist man could not have known when to lift or lower the skip to and from the men, in order to provide a clean escape for them.
When it came to pointing fingers at someone, some newspapers insinuated that Fessel started the fire, as if he had conveniently snuck off into the night. Because he was German, had been an interpreter for the United States Government for a while and wasn’t always a “miner,” there was gossip that he could have been a spy.
Others
insinuated that perhaps it was the work of communists which at the time went by the name the Industrial Workers of the World. There
were other insinuations that the fire could have been started by a “mystery
person” who may have escaped out of a drift at the 2500 foot level that exited
out near the creek. That could have very well been the case, given the extra set of clothing and "secret" brass tag that the mine company wouldn't divulge whom it belonged to.
According to O. Henry Mace's research, Ben Sanguinetti claimed that there had been footprints found on a drift leading out of the mine and down to the creek, but no one ever did any further inquiry into this possible lead, and it was left to be forgotten.
Why no one bothered to investigate
that lead makes me wonder about the whole thing all together. As much as I hated to think it, it almost started sounding like an inside job. But then I found another lead that took me in another direction completely.
A New Theory
I too have another possible theory, which could be completely unfounded, yet I would still like to toss it into the ring with the others. Only 8 months earlier, the Argonaut had been robbed by red bandana wearing bandits, and only two of eight men were eventually caught. The robbers took approximately $60,000 which was in gold amalgam. Could this fire have been related? Could someone, perhaps have come back to cause more trouble at the mine?
The
reason I say that is because for one, Hiram Baker, although later acquitted
could have had a score to settle with the mine, after having been through the
ringer in the newspapers and in his much publicized trial. When Hiram was
arrested he was with a man known only as Frank Lynch.
I find it
interesting that Frank was never mentioned again in the clippings about the
robbery, only Hiram. And if Hiram was acquitted, what happened to the other
guy?
I
couldn’t find any convictions noted for the robbery. So, I started digging
deeper. It turns out that Frank was
actually Arthur Welling, of Indiana, and he was a known safe cracker and
specialized in explosives. He was already on the run for robbing Western Oil
Refining Company in Indiana, and was originally caught with his friend, Edward
Stevens at the Omni Severin Hotel when they were found in the check room with
nitroglycerin, more than likely ready to crack open the hotel’s safe.
During an
escape from the County Jail on July 4, 1919, Arthur helped 24 other inmates slip
away into the night, and into freedom. When he was caught in California and held
on charges for the mine robbery, Sheriff Lucot kept him in the Amador County
jail until he was extradited to Michigan City, Indiana where he was sentenced
to 14 years in the penitentiary for his previous crimes. Lynch a.k.a. Welling, had friends everywhere,
so how do we know that one of Arthur’s buddies didn’t pay back the mine for
their friend having been caught and being sent to the big house? We don’t. This is why I wonder if possibly this fire was started by Welling's friends.
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| Only Known Picture of Bill Fessel (Courtesy of the Ryan Family) |
Again,
locals who knew him didn’t believe it one minute, and were adamant that he
would eventually be found in the mine. Still, the whispers and the rumors were
too much for Fessel’s wife, who basically became a hermit and moved up to live
with her mother in Pine Grove, where she remained the rest of her life.
On
September 31, 1923, after flushing out the mine, at the 4650 level, the remains
of the 47th miner, Edward William "Bill" Fessel was discovered and the newspapers and everyone
else who had made slanderous insinuations about Fessel, had to eat crow.
Although there was no forensic way to determine for certain who it was, it was believed to be the body of Bill Fessel, given the fact he was the last miner who had not been identified with the recovered bodies, and they were one body short of the total of miners on duty that night.
A
local dentist examined the skull of the body that had been found, and he
believed it was Fessel, based on the missing molars and still present wisdom
teeth that he had noticed during an examination a few years prior at a dental
visit. The coroner determined it to be
the remains of Edward William Fessel and he took his rightful place besides his
fallen friends at the public cemetery in Jackson.
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| The Grave of Bill Fessel |
TO BE CONTINUED..... TO READ PART 3 (CLICK HERE!)
(Copyright, J'aime Rubio 2022 www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
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