By Stoney Brakefield
“Humanoid subterranean creatures ate 15 miners alive and almost killed two rescuers, claims a mining inspector’s report SUPPRESSED for more than 3O years.
“Inspector Glenn E. Barger filed his startling find with superiors in 1944, but details haven’t been released until now.
“Immediately after returning from the disaster near Dixonville, Pa., (50 miles northeast of Pittsburgh) Barger announced his retirement, refusing to set foot again underground, fearing he would face the mysterious creature again.
“He died in 1958, and his report remained hidden until released by his son, Frank, earlier this year.
“Although the public was kept from the truth about the cave-in, miners who worked in the area knew what really went on. They refused even to go near the shaft of horror, which now has been abandoned and sealed off. “TONS OF valuable coal and the true facts of what killed those 15 men remains hundreds of feet below ground, probably never to be unearthed again.
“I vowed I’d never set foot in another coal mine,” the elder Barger told his son before his death. “I haven’t, and I won’t, either.” “His father wasn’t the sort of man to be easily shaken, Frank Barger said. He gave up his lifelong occupation for fear of the unknown.
“Barger first learned of the mishap when Bill Leigh, a mining company representative, and a sheriff’s deputy spotted him and motioned him into the trailer used as the mine’s main office, he told his son.
“’Lying on the floor and covered by a blanket was the body of a miner they’d pulled from the cave-in,’ he said. SOMETHING IN their expressions told me all was not as it should be.” Barger lifted the blanket and jumped back in fright.
“Something like an animal had attacked him,” he said. “Whatever is was, it still was in the mine.”
“I want to know what’s down there,” Leigh commanded. Other rescuers already were getting anxious, fearing the men trapped below would be lost if something wasn’t done for them quickly. Barger agreed to go into the mine with Ted Walters, another inspector. Their fear reached panic proportions as they reached the 200-foot level.
“I peered into the hole and saw that by removing a few more large rocks, we could get through to the lower shaft,” he told his son. Walters and I crawled through that hole and, in less than a moment, we stumbled across the body of a miner who’d been crushed by a large timber.”
THEY STUMBLED across another body a few feet away. “That man wasn’t killed by any cave-in.” Barger related. “He must have been killed by some sort of animal; that was obvious.” As the two men crept along in the darkness; their lanterns revealed something even more startling – the existence of a second, deeper tunnel, which had been rumored to exist for years.
“I don’t mind telling you, son, if Walters had said turn around, your dad wouldn’t have argued,” Barger related. There was no way of telling how old this second tunnel was – or who’d dug it. “I was afraid the slightest vibration would bring the walls down around us.”
But the two mining inspectors had to go on, since none of the other bodies had been found. “HALF AN hour later, we found nothing, had come to a dead end.” Barger reported. There was no trace of the remaining miners.
As they turned to leave, however, the shaft caved in, pouring tons of dirt down upon them and closing off their escape route. “They had nothing to do but wait and hope,” Barger later told his son. “I fell asleep for a time. It wasn’t long. Suddenly, I felt a hot breath on my face.”Barger was terrified, but remained lying down with his eyes closed, The hot breath remained in his face for what seemed to be hours.
Finally, the mining inspector got up enough courage to open his eyes and look over at his mate. “That thing wasn’t of this world,” Walters told him. “WE SAT silently, reflecting on our fate.” Barger said. “I swear, I expected some slimy thing to drag the both of us away.”Hours later, rescuers broke through to save them. Never again did Glenn Barger set foot underground.
But rumors of the strange flesh-eating subterranean creatures continue today.
No trace ever was found of the other missing miners.
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