The Sheppton Mine disaster and rescue in Sheppton, Pennsylvania, United States, was one of the first rescues of trapped miners accomplished by raising them through holes bored through solid rock, an event that gripped the world's attention during August 1963. The roof of the Sheppton

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

collapsed on August 13 and three miners were trapped 300 feet below ground. A small

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

was drilled from the surface in an attempt to contact the miners. After several days a borehole successfully reached a mine, and revealed that two of the miners, Henry Throne and David Fellin, had survived in a small, narrow chamber. Rescuers dropped provisions to the miners and subsequent larger boreholes were made, including the final large hole bored with the assistance of billionaire

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

, and the two surviving miners were successfully raised to the surface on August 27. Attempts to contact the third miner, Louis Bova, were unsuccessful. In 1971, The Buoys recorded a hit single "

Timothy Timothy is a masculine name. It comes from the Greek language, Greek name (Timotheus (disambiguation), Timόtheos) meaning "honouring God", "in God's honour", or "honoured by God". Timothy (and its variations) is a common name in several countries ...

", about three miners trapped underground due to a cave-in, with only two of them surviving and a strong implication they survived by cannibalizing the third. This led many to assume the song was inspired by the Sheppton disaster, but songwriter

Rupert Holmes Rupert Holmes (born David Goldstein; February 24, 1947) is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles " Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). He is also know ...

insisted he had never heard of the incident and would not have written the song if he had. Lead singer Bill Kelly backed up this account. In 2015, a Pennsylvania state historical marker was installed near the site where a third miner remains entombed. That same year, the book ''Sheppton: The Myth, Miracle & Music'', explored themes of the miraculous and supernatural at the Sheppton disaster site. After they were rescued, Throne and Fellin related similar stories of having seen human-like figures (including the recently deceased

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

), crosses, stairs, and other religious imagery. While the shared visions were similar, they varied enough in the details to suggest the miners had experienced

folie à deux ''Folie à deux'' (), also called shared psychosis Berrios, G. E., and I. S. Marková. 2015. "Shared Pathologies. Pp. 3–15 in ''Troublesome disguises: Managing challenging Disorders in Psychiatry'' (2nd ed.), edited by D. Bhugra and G. Malhi. ...

References

{{coord, 40.68758, -76.19819 1963 in Pennsylvania History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Coal mining disasters in Pennsylvania 1963 mining disasters 1963 disasters in the United States Disasters in Pennsylvania