Show I 1 flooding of illinois coal mine many years ago developed a boiling spring the hooding flooding ol of a mine near pinckneyville in 1880 caus caused edn a temporary phenomenon in the nature of a true geyser probably the only occurrence of this kind in the recorded ca crded history of illinois research workers of the federal writers project have found an account of this event in a pinckney villo ville newspaper ot of the time notes a correspondent in the chicago dally daily news flood waters on beaucoup Beau coup creek had covered a tract of land above the coal mine of bernhard blume time A break in the roof of the mine suddenly admitted the flood water in great volume for a short time almost diverting the current odthe ot the swollen creek carrying away whole sections stations of the rail fence which stood near a bank of tho the creek many of the rails as well as other timber and dritt driftwood wood being caught in maelstrom the and whirled down the capacious throat of 0 the gaping 11 creva crevasse csc the sudden inrush of the yater water compressed the air in an extraordinary degree and the rebound was such that the descending flood was forced back as in the action of a geyser and for several minutes time heaved skyward in vast quantities to the height of at least 10 0 feet this upheaval of water dirt and drift was succeeded by a few minutes of quiet during which the floods again poured down the funnel the air was again compressed and again the geyser like reaction occurred higher than before this process was twice more repeated before the mine had been entirely flooded all but one of the miners tied had escaped before the break in the roof occurred the blume mine remained flooded for nearly 39 years in 1918 the body bode of joseph celsing Nel sing which had been preserved by the mineral laden water was finally recovered it lay face down on the floor of tits his room and conditions indicated that he had his working place in order A sack of tobacco and a I 1 small clay pipe with a heel beel of tobacco tapped tightly in it were found in the pockets |