The remains of an old bank vault in StoneCity, Kansas.
Stone City, Kansas, was a mining town located in the northern part of the Cherokee County.
A post office was established on June 21, 1900. Part of the Weir-Pittsburg Coal Field, the town was said to have the best appearance of any company mining town within the district. The Company owned and rented 150 houses to its employees, which were always kept in good repair. The water works and the electric light system is the best.
In 1910, Stone City had a money-order post office and a population of 25.
The community was rocked on the afternoon of December 13, 1916. Due to the accumulation of gases in an old entryway at Ryan and Reedy Mine No. 9, a terrible explosion took the lives of 20 men and boys and injured seven workers in the mine that day.
Apparently, a miner was unknowingly drilling into a gas pocket, and upon breaching the wall, the combination of his carbide lamp and the gas created the explosion. Those killed in the disaster were either burned or suffocated, and some of those rescued were severely burned. Most of the dead were foreigners living in Stone City near the scene of the explosion. It is not known definitely how many were in the mine at the time of the explosion, but it is believed there were 60. Thirty-three escaped uninjured from the side opposite that where the explosion occurred.
Stone City explosion newspaper clipping.
For hours, a mine rescue team from Pittsburg, worked heroically in an effort to save those caught by the explosion, and while the bodies were being brought to the surface, wives, children, and other relatives and friends of the trapped men stood about, hoping against hope.
Although the explosion was significant, most of the deaths were due to suffocation after the blast. The explosion was one of the worst accidents in the Weir-Pittsburg Coal Field. With but one exception, the loss of life was the greatest in the history of Kansas coal mining. One woman lost her husband and two sons. Two other fathers died with their sons, and 40 children were left fatherless.
According to the December 15, 1916, edition of the Cherokee Sentinel:
“It was a pitiful sight. The families of the miners were upon the ground, and whenever a body would be brought up, each would think it was their loved one. Women were panic-stricken, and some of the foreign women who could not understand English were kept from the shaft with difficulty.”
Stone City’s post office was closed on July 31, 1918.
The only thing that remains of Stone City today is an old bank vault. Stone City was 12 miles from Columbus and five miles from Mineral.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated April 2025.
Also See:
Extinct Towns of Crawford County
Sources:
Blackmar, Frank W.; Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Vol I; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912.
Historic Marker Database
Miners Hall Museum