Cost Cutting Fatally Trapped Workers Hundreds of Feet Underground | Plainly Difficult

On Tuesday, May 2, 1972, a fire broke out at the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho USA. Smoke and carbon monoxide quickly filled the area in which the majority of the 173 miners were working.
Ninety-one men perished due to carbon monoxide exposure.
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Keywords: Mine Disaster, Underground Fire, Silver Mining, Disaster Management, sunshine Mine
#disaster #Documentary​​​​ #History​​​​​​​​​ #TrueStories​

[@PhrontDoor]

The BINGO card was practically the MOST covered one I'd ever seen on this channel He might have to start adding more rows and columns like "attacked by air-borne squids" and "anti-matter toothpaste not disclosed".

[@tcpratt1660]

I need to go back and rewatch some of his more infamous episodes (Chernobyl, anyone?) to retroactively see if they completely would have filled the Bongi...er, Nobig...Bingo, that's it! Bingo card...

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

@@tcpratt1660 Pretty sure Chernobyl would cover everything but "Legacy Infrastructure", since it was still quite new...

[@herbcraven7146]

Where can we get our own bingo cards so we can play along?

[@ChaosMagnet]

@@herbcraven7146save the image of the Bingo card (image capture software or screenshot) and print it out.

[@holyassbutts]

Lmao, I lol'd at antimatter toothpaste 😂

[@PauperJ]

3:46 How does that supervisor, who is responsible for 99.99% of every accident on Plainly Difficult, keep getting employed?

[@Nat_778]

Every supervisor just looks like that, like nurse joy from pokemon

[@SubPablum]

The Peter principle.

[@ImOnAJourney]

😂😂

[@Arltratlo]

lives dont count.. stocks do!

[@Phili2012]

Nepotism

[@nlwilson4892]

For those not familiar with mining terminology - "inby" means inwards of the issue, ie. the issue is between the exit and the place they are talking about. "outby" means towards the exit. So you might get a statement such as "Those miners inby of the collapse all died, those outby of the collapse were able to get out. The same terms can be used to denote the direction of travel, "Smith was walking inby when he heard a rumble, he turned around and ran."

[@B3TH_anny]

Thank you.

[@gchampi2]

Thank you for clarifying that, I wasn't sure if it was a specialized term or a typo.

[@elizabethsohler6516]

Thanks for the education.

[@mrrob7531]

Come on everyone…tell your husbands, wives, brothers, sisters…even your pizza delivery guy to join this channel so he can finally get to the ONE MILLION mark!! He deserves it!!

[@cuddlepaws4423]

Can we subscribe twice??? With a different identity? How about our pet hamster??

[@28ebdh3udnav]

I can make like 50 accounts. I can help

[@-xirx-]

I dont know 6000 people though! Delivery drivers included!

[@michaelquintana692]

I would say my job is to give out pizza parties but they don't even do that lol 😅😢

[@holyassbutts]

I'm getting serious "PewDiePie vs T-Series" nostalgia vibes right now

[@douglaschamberlain9773]

I grew up in Wallace, Idaho, and was nine years old when the disaster happened. My mom was a teacher and both she and I remember the radio being broadcast through the school’s intercom system while we tried keep life normal, especially for the kids whose fathers, uncles, and grandfathers had been trapped. The school had to stop when the radio began to announce the names of those being recovered. When Wilkerson and Flory were found alive, it raised the hope that those who had not been recovered might still be alive. No one else survived.

[@Archangelm127]

What did they do for water? A human can only (barely) survive for ~72 hours without water, and IIRC they were down there for ~173 hours, plus however much of their shift they worked beforehand. Were there stores of water and food cached for such situations?

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@Archangelm127 There are emergency shelters in mines that typically are stocked for this sort of disaster

[@mikeprimm4077]

There was underground water pumped in from above in fire suppression pipes They may have been able to tap into, plus I imagine there was a underground supply of water. I could be 100% wrong though I'm just some guy on the internet😊

[@douglaschamberlain9773]

Underground is dripping wet. I remember water pouring down the shaft like heavy rain. For food, the two ventured out and found lunchboxes of their dead coworkers. Kinda grim, but the survived. For fresh air, there was a borehole at the end of the drift they sheltered in that brought air from the surface and kept the bad air out of the drift.

[@Archangelm127]

@@douglaschamberlain9773 Damn. Thanks for expanding on this for us. 😕

[@EldritchFyre]

My grandfather worked in the anthracite mines in eastern PA, as a kid I remember hearing his stories of the mines, and how a miner's biggest fears were cave-ins and fires... both which were frighteningly common.

[@Phiyedough]

He said there were no smoking areas but I would have thought all mines should have a ban on smoking.

[@mhoppy6639]

Was centralia an anthracite mine?

[@Dericwadleigh]

As a Spokane native (Just across the border into Washington), I grew up hearing about the silver mines in Coeur d'Alene and the mountains east of there. Heavy metals from the silver mining was dumped into the Coeur d'Alene lake for years, and that heavy metal filtered down the Spokane river. For my entire childhood I was told that we shouldn't play in the river too much, and you shouldn't eat fish from the river whenever possible. Even without any disasters, silver mines can be absolutely NASTY for the surroundings. I have definitely heard about Sunshine Mine before this, but it was intensely interesting seeing all the facts and data you dug up about this. 10/10. Superb video.

[@B3TH_anny]

He does a great job.

[@charlottehagen8415]

I grew up in Coeur d’Alene and recall that time vividly. This is the most accurate and complete coverage of the disaster I’ve ever seen. Well told as well.

[@charlottehagen8415]

There is a professional historian named Gregg Olsen who wrote a book called The Deep Dark about the disaster that is excellent as well.

[@CatMom-uw9jl]

@@charlottehagen8415 I’ve read Starvation Heights by him. I’ll have to look up that one.

[@historyinbitesizedchunks5857]

Hello fellow Spokanite!

[@crazyguy32100]

Former underground mechanic here. Everyone thinks that cave in is the biggest danger, nope, it's fire. There is a lot of electrical stuff, diesel powered equipment and rubber conveyors to burn, plus combustible ore in some locations. Cave in (fall of ground) will only affect a small area, even if it's the only way out you still have time, like the miners in Chile. Smoke on the other hand travels, it wants to leave the mine the same way you do, and doesn't care if you are in the way. Generally accepted best practice these days is shelter in place. Go to your refuge station, seal the entry, turn on the compressed air line from surface, or compressed air cylinders if the air line is down (positively pressurize the room), call in a head count to surface and wait it out. These days the radio networks underground are quite good and in case of emergency ethyl mercaptan is injected into the ventilation air and compressed air supplies. That's the same stuff used to scent natural gas and propane. If you smell it then get to shelter pronto.

[@itsmeian17]

It sounds like for most extreme environment professions, submarines, mining, space exploration, the biggest threat is almost always still fire.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Some people hear Kellogg and think corn flakes; some people hear Kellogg and think fifteen gallons of yogurt.

[@AirQuotes]

I think of circumcision

[@Xhumed]

I think "anti-libido" nonsense.

[@bubbletractor]

I think of eugenics

[@vinny-is-here]

I think of corn flakes. I've never seen the name be associated with anything but cereal.

[@jimsvideos7201]

@@vinny-is-here There's a movie called The Road To Wellville.

[@moxiemaxie3543]

Only 82 out of 173 survived 91 out of 173 lost their lives underground

[@meatharbor]

It's like "show-show-nee." The county is named after a (fairly sizable) Native American tribe and the word means "Grass House People." Edit: I have been informed that this pronunciation is actually incorrect and it _should_ be "shuh-SHONE" in this context. I'mma leave the original text unedited, though, 'cause the rest is correct. _Should_ be correct.

[@douglaschamberlain9773]

Actually, he pronounced it correctly. While the tribe keeps the original pronunciation, the county is pronounced as if the “e” were silent.

[@meatharbor]

@@douglaschamberlain9773 Wait, for reals? Now I gotta look this up... Well, shit. It _is_ "shuh-SHONE." I guess that's the risk one takes being an insufferable pedant on the internet. Bound to be wrong sooner or later. I'm up in Oregon and that's the pronunciation I've always heard used so I _probably_ should have checked the actual county and not just the name of the tribe. I appreciate the heads-up. It'll help me be a little _less_ wrong sometimes.

[@douglaschamberlain9773]

@@meatharborNo worries! Having grown up there, we got used to it. As an Oregonian you get it. You can tell outsiders when they pronounce your state “or-e-gone” instead of “-gun”. 😂

[@CatMom-uw9jl]

@@douglaschamberlain9773 And Tualatin, and Willamette, and Aloha…lol.

[@drkatel]

It's understandable. I live in Illinois where we have the following weird pronunciations: Athens (AY-thenz); Cairo (CARE-Roe); Berlin (BER-lin); and Versailles-you guessed it; it’s Ver-SALES. 🤷‍♀️

[@bluejedi723]

You should do a video on how the Firefighting technique called the Denver Drill (and variations of it since then) came about. A life saving technique that was born out of tragedy.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That's interesting ill have to have a dig into it thank you!!

[@bluejedi723]

@@PlainlyDifficult Look up Mark Langvard he is the fireman whose death inspired the denver drill. He became trapped during a fire, and his fellow fireman couldn't get him out until it was too late. Now every fire department in the nation (and world wide now) have developed rapid intervention teams to rescue a trapped fireman, or if rescue at moment is not possible, at least get fresh air to him/her. The Denver Drill (and it's variations) were developed to get a victim- firefighter or otherwise- out of a confined space quickly and safely- it's skill/drill every firefighter in the US needs to learn/prefect to become a certified firefighter. It and common variations of it are practiced often.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

I'm very curious too! I grew up while my grandfather was Deputy Chief of our local Fire Department, and he had stories about fighting fires just about everywhere but in a mine, thank goodness! That seems like the worst possible place to be stuck while it's on fire. (The strangest in his record was a swamp... Yes, an entire swamp caught on fire, it's a long story.)

[@mattilindstrom]

There aren't many places where I'd like to be less than in a mine in case of a fire: a spaceship, a flying aeroplane, and a crippled submerged submarine. All mining accidents are potentially horrific, but this really got to me as entrapment deep underground with the loss of breathable air is an especially unpleasant thought.

[@wilsjane]

If you look at those mine shafts, there is enough air for people to breath for a few hours before the oxygen level drops. If in event of fire, all fans are designed to stop immediately, the fire area would be starved of additional oxygen slowing it down and the remainder of the mine would be fairly smoke free. This would make finding an escape route easier and far less lives would be lost. With less areas full of smoke, rescue would also be easier. If airbags inflated by nitrogen cylinders were placed where shafts met, it would be fairly easy to contain smoke within a fairly small area. They would have to be designed in a layout to always maintain an alternative escape route. Without increasing smoke, their would not be a serious time problem and once the affected area was isolated, supply fans could be restarted.

[@mattilindstrom]

@@wilsjane Thanks for the information. I guess my unease is partly just irrational fear, partly the knowledge that both the technological and the human elements can fail (as regular viewers of of Plainly Difficult surely know).

[@FayeVert]

@mattilindstrom you wanna really justify this healthy fear, watch the documentary "Westray" from the Canadian National Film Board - it's on KZbin

[@Hfxkimberlee]

You should look into the Westray Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia Canada. It happened in 1992 and 26 lives were lost

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

I second this! I travelled through the area not long after, and the whole community was in shock and mourning.

[@skeetrix5577]

HELL YA 8:00AM ON THE DOT! Woke up early on a Saturday to catch the new plainly difficult video!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Boom!!

[@skeetrix5577]

@@PlainlyDifficult it was a good one! how sad though, I can't imagine what those families must have went through. so many lives changed forever. but I appreciate your work, and am excited for you to reach a mil subs, get that nice gold plaque to proudly display lol. have a great weekend John!

[@nerdygoth6905]

"A new nightmare has been unlocked" ... you and me both, John

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Very scary!!

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

You just rekindled an old nightmare, long banked after a childhood tour of part of the Sudbury nickel mines. There's something about being 11 and very aware of how much rock is above your head, being supported by... what exactly?... that can leave a kid waking up in cold sweats for a long while.

[@tim3172]

Are you planning on spending a lot of time in a mine?

[@warailawildrunner5300]

Fire in general, no matter where it is is a nightmare honestly.... and after being stuck in a block of flats, when part of it was on fire and there's no escape - you can understand why situations such as this and Grenfell gives me absolute nightmares. (No I wasn't anywhere near grenfelll, the fire I'm referencing happened in the early 80s, and to a toddler it was a nightmare... objectively though, we were safe enough... concrete walls and floors mean't it wasn't going to spread far, and the smoke was mitigated by the balconies. )

[@thejudgmentalcat]

The fullest bingo card I've seen 😢

[@patc1096]

I joined this channel when it was maybe at 250,000. I just want to say it's been a pleasure cruise going through this wild ride with you.

[@maxhill7065]

I work for a safety supply company and some of the stuff Dräger produces is incredibly designed. Their bunker assemblies have saved thousands of lives

[@jimmissenda6590]

Does Draeger still have a US presence? I know they closed down their operations here in Pittsburgh years ago. As an aside, up until my recent retirement, I worked for a competitor, at least on the gas monitoring side.

[@maxhill7065]

@@jimmissenda6590 ah, I work for a distributor in Canada, but I believe they've got a Canadian office, or at least a Canadian hub, most of our stuff comes from there. We also deal MSA and Honeywell BW and the occasional Industrial Scientific but I don't have any idea about the internals on them, I can tear down and rebuild almost everything else though haha

[@gragor11]

I was on a mine rescue team in the North West Territories Yellowknife and I was looking at that gear and remembering. So hard to get up ladder ways pushing air through those scrubbers.

[@maxhill7065]

@@jimmissenda6590 Not sure about the US but they've got a Canadian presence, at least a distribution hub, that's where most of our shipments come from. We also do MSA and Honeywell BW haha

[@jimmissenda6590]

@@maxhill7065 I worked for Industrial Scientific for 34 years, so I'm familiar with both MSA and Honeywell BW.

[@kirknay]

And to think as of yesterday morning, this kind of event can happen again because regulatory agencies have no teeth to detect and prevent issues like this.

[@tim3172]

Not only that, it's now legal to attack federal buildings, provided you don't damage any precious documents. J6 part 2 is going to be *INSANE* when Trump loses bigly again. Maybe then the "justice" system will take it seriously? Ha, JK.

[@3v068]

Hey there John. I want to thank YOU for making my work day far less boring. Down in texas in the U.S. keep going my man. This channel is fantastic.

[@averywinders1363]

so happy for your success, as you deserve it John. hello from the states.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks so much

[@xxdesertstorm]

come on people lets get this man to a million subs as his content is well deserving of a million subs as its way better than these "creators" using AI trash to make content

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@hakanevin8545]

The name of the company is like a bad joke: Sunshine Mining 💀

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sunshine of death!

[@recurvestickerdragon]

like some Bethesda visual storytelling

[@B3TH_anny]

💯

[@tombryant5029]

​@@PlainlyDifficultWouldn't that be more like a prompt criticality iincident?

[@MrSirlulzalot]

​@tombryant5029 whoa. Good one 👍 😂❤

[@CreepyClosetCat]

Good morning from Minnesota, USA!! so happy to be here so early!!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Morning!

[@MarianneKat]

Ive been on a tour down in the salt mines in Detroit Michigan USA and it was so interesting, even to 16 yr old me at the time. Salt is pretty stable and you dont see the problems coal mines have. Mining salt is relatively safe. It was terrifying, tho, with only a 1000ft (334m) elevator ride for escape. They dont have tours anymore as salt prices increased and its back to a working mine. I would have loved to take my kids there.

[@BenKonosky]

Mining salt is relatively safe, unless water starts getting into the mine.

[@Tindometari]

​​@@BenKonoskyTwo words: Lake Peigneur. The odd thing is, though, that a salt formation is normally a supremely impermeable barrier to water. (Also to oil and gas, which is why petroleum geologists pitch tents whenever and wherever they find one, and also why that oil rig at Lake Peigneur was drilling through the salt in the first place.) Under normal circumstances, ground water cannot penetrate salt, and so salt mines tend to be some of the driest places on Earth. But if water ever *does* penetrate a salt formation -- say, through a fault line -- and begin to flow through it ... yeah, things happen very, very fast.

[@tcpratt1660]

Yay! A new character - the famous blue barrel Bic four colour pen! (I prefer hazmat guy orange ones.) I need to look up to see if the (correctly) functionally full bingo card meant anyone got sent to prison (I rather doubt it 😢 )

[@ImOnAJourney]

I haven’t seen one of those Bic pens in years!!! They came on the market in the 1970’s, I think. I had one once upon a time - it was required by one of my high school English teachers, “so we only had to remember to bring one writing instrument to class.” Which I thought was a huge insult to my intelligence, along with the intelligence of my classmates. Every day in class she would tell us to “pull out your spiral bound college rule theme book and your Bic four-color ink pen.” Every time she wanted us to write something in our notes, she would literally go through the whole statement: “In your spiral bound college rule theme book, write the following words with the green ink in your Bic four-color ink pen”, and then she would proceed with giving us the words. It was hideous! She spent almost one-third of our 50 minute class period reciting those precise descriptive words for “notebook and pen”, which, apparently, was against her personal constitution to step down off her pedestal and speak like us commoners. I hated that pen so much! On the last day of school I laid my “spiral bound college rule theme book and my Bic four-color ink pen” on her desk, smiled at her and walked away. After I got my report card securely in my mother’s hands, I sent that teacher a note and I thanked her for insulting every student she had by starting the year off telling us that we were irresponsible ingrates … then I told her she could stick my “Bic four-color ink pen” where the sun doesn’t shine because I sure as heck had no further use for the darn thing. And then I spent all summer praying that I would never have her as a teacher again!

[@isen2619]

@@ImOnAJourney That teacher of yours is a monster! Such a control freak!

[@ImOnAJourney]

@@isen2619 Yeah, she was different. I’m not sure it was a control thing, though. I think it was as simple as she wanted all students to go through high school being prim, proper and professional in our use of the English language so we would carry the properness of what we learned throughout our lives, and she was just very passionate about that. Sadly, teachers now could care less what or how students learn as long as they get passed on and out of their classroom at the end of the school year. Honestly, looking back, she was a good teacher - just a bit quirky and old fashioned in her ways, even for the 1970’s. I kind of wish now that I had paid more attention to her and that I had tried harder.

[@DMCCorp]

Pronunciation correct but there is more to the story. What was burning was a form of fiberglass that was used to seal off worked over areas. This material was billed as being fire proof but was saddly anything but. There were a number of hard rock mines that suffered fires with this material and the toxicity of the smoke was unbeleivable. Cant recall the name of the book that covers the fire off the top of my head at the moment but goes into details.

[@VladimirLuton]

Pronounced like Diane Abbott Suffocated to deaf what a moby😭 🐵

[@VladimirLuton]

I don’t fink he did

[@DMCCorp]

@@VladimirLuton he did. I live near the area and that is how it is called.

[@MarianneKat]

Seems like the 70s were a pivotal time in worker safety. Old 'who cares, workers are cheap' was replaced with company liability and being held responsible (somewhat). At least on the books. I live in Michigan USA which is thr big car manufacturing center. I thought grandpas with missing fingers were normal. Thankfully that changed for the next generation. I worked in trauma icu in Lansing MI which was GM country, with several local plants and never once took care of an accident there. Was bummed that they earned better money than I did! As a new nurse I made $12.84/hr (1992) and the guys on the line made twice that. Now the tables have turned and I earn twice what they do. (They have better benefits esp health insurance, tho)

[@faenethlorhalien]

I think I saw this case in another similar channel I watch and it is absolutely horrifying. Work at the mines has improved a lot since the 1700s, but it's still a grueling and dangerous job.

[@kutter_ttl6786]

Definitely. The most recent accident happened this past March, when a landslide in the Amur region of Russia trapped 13 gold miners 120m underground. Unfortunately, they had to call the search off after 2 weeks when conditions got too dangerous. RIP.

[@KaiyaCorrbin]

Idahoan, here! I remember hearing about this story elsewhere, but it's always nice to see it covered! You also pronounced Shoshone correctly. Some people say it's pronounced Show-shone-ee, but I've always known it the way you said it.

[@jackiehoward7300]

John, hello. I enjoy your videos and how thorough they are in investigating disasters. Congratulations.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@NathanSimonGottemer]

2:39 my man redefining side note for us like a boss

[@YouveBeenMiddled]

Haven't hit 1M subscribers yet? *Balls*

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Balls indeed my friend

[@gavinlowe6079]

Almost had a bingo block

[@sparkplug1018]

Miners: you guys know mining is a pretty dangerous business right? Management: oh really? Well how can we make it more dangerous? Maybe even a bit scarier too?

[@markh.6687]

"We have an emergency plan we've never actually tested by running drill to see how bad it goes." I worked above-ground for a company that when they conducted the first fire drill in years, they found out some aspects of their plan needed to be changed. Like people actually knowing who was in charge, etc.

[@travislee5721]

I was born in Kellogg Idaho. My dad was a miner in late 70s earlier 80s in Kellogg

[@rrice1705]

Semi-local resident here (Pullman-Moscow area). Thank you much for covering this story, John. If anyone's traveling through the area, there's a memorial to the miners on the north side of I-90 between Kellogg and Wallace. Very moving experience to stop and visit it.

[@Welgeldiguniekalias]

13:51 I want to call it Xitter. It's pronounced.. well, you know how it's pronounced.

[@koinzellthegrayed7860]

Man, gotta love Kellogs. Nothing ever happens at their locations.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

Bunch of cereal killers.

[@cuddlepaws4423]

@@thing_under_the_stairs 🤣🤣🤣

[@billbrisson]

I work in a gold mine in Red Lake Ontario Canada, Underground emergency drills are done annually, there are radio and hardwired communication systems, and also a "Stench System" that introduces stench gas into the ventilation and compressed air systems to alert workers to an emergency. The mining regulations we adhere to are written in blood!

[@yakacm]

Here's a fun fact for you all. Silver will be the 1st element to go "extinct", IE there will be no more left in the earths crust to mine.

[@cowherdsman]

Why is that? Is it more easily accessible then gold or something?

[@kingawsume]

@@cowherdsman Comparitive rarity in the crust (to other "working" metals like aluminum, copper, or zinc) and the appications for silver using more bulk material than similar applications for other rare materials (e.g. we use a lot more silver per year than gold for PCB manufacturing, and we use a lot of silver nitrate for sterile coatings of medical devices)

[@Professor_GonZo]

Casual Miner guy: -mining- Hazmat guy: bro fire CMG: huh?

[@Zerasad]

Damn, I didn't even realizes how much this channel grew. I still thought of this as a relatively small channel, and you are hitting 1 million. Congrats man!

[@quintenhaller5735]

Grew up not to far from the mine they have a memorial not to far away for the miners that died. Glad you where able to cover this!

[@baxfraud23]

Reminder to long time watchers to comment and like the video, let's get this guy to 1M subs, he's too good to keep to ourselves!

[@kevinbarry71]

You would never get me in one of these mines; I would rather wash dishes for a living

[@moxiemaxie3543]

Dish washing can't be compared to the physical labor intensive work of mining

[@kutter_ttl6786]

​@@moxiemaxie3543 You seem to have missed the point of the comment.

[@ImOnAJourney]

I’d rather scrub toilets over being a miner! And Moximaxie - I get what you’re saying, but I’m thinking of an ugly occupation. And so is kutter. I am well aware miners work incredibly hard. I’m not against hard work at all, but I sure as heck don’t want to do it 6,000 feet below ground level.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

@@moxiemaxie3543 So for intensive physical labour I'd go back to working in a steel foundry before working in a mine. At least in the foundry we weren't trapped hundreds of M underground while doing hot, dirty, heavy work!

[@Archangelm127]

At least nowadays, I think miners actually make pretty good money. One would hope so, anyway, given how much skill and danger the work involves.

[@004Black]

I had an opportunity to work at the Greens Creek Mine on Admiralty Island outside of Juneau, Alaska but could not overcome the thought of being killed deep underground. The mine has an excellent safety record and is still in operation today.

[@johnat856]

Pretty bad when a disaster nearly has a coverall bingo.

[@juliamcwilliam]

I've "liked", commented on video and shared the video. Doing my bit to help you get 1 million subs

[@ShadeEmberi]

Woah almost 1 million, well done Mr difficult! (John is still strange to hear since I was here early on!)

[@stepdg]

Congratulations on hitting 1 million subscribers very soon. I've been a loyal viewer for ages and look forward to all your amazing videos.

[@jrmckim]

Love ya, John! Hope all is well with you and the family ❤

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@bill8985]

show-show'-knee

[@EvanEdwards]

I mean, to be fair, it's not only the name "Kellogg" -- whenever I hear your wonderful voice talking about any kind of event, there's some kind of disaster involved.

[@echalone]

Just imagine, there was a time when you were allowed to smoke in most parts of a mine xD

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Pretty scary eh!!

[@Jayness]

You're easily one of my fav content creators. Love your music as well.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

thank you!!

[@shadodragonette]

I don't know how you do it, how you face that much death every day... I appreciate it and love you! I just don't know how you do it. I feel sick after some of your videos, so I can only imagine you have a bucket next to your desk. It's not like your videos are descriptive, it's just I have a vivid imagination. You are reading worse than you are telling. Thank you! Thank you so much for not giving more images for nightmares! I'd hug you if I could, I am that grateful.

[@brickwhale272]

Honestly, this is the real true crime i want to listen to. Theres something about accidents/mistakes of negligence that makes me so intrigued. Also mine/dam/building type, man-made disasters are just perfection to watch, then rewatch several when i want to fall asleep or need something to listen to when im busy (in a good way i swear)

[@johnhall3824]

I was one of those who requested this video, thank you!

[@georgefspicka5483]

Hi John, thank you for the documentary. Congratulations as you approach the 1 million mark. I think the popularity is because the subject matter, plus the clever way you cover the incidents, arouse a certain curiosity that many of us humans have about such matters. Cheers 🙂

[@Pylon069]

1:48 Believe it or not, you got it

[@AidanPatko]

This took place just down the interstate from me, I pass through Kellogg all the time. Fascinating local history I never would have known if not for this British KZbinr, funny how that works!

[@EShirako]

"...fire doors were installed at levels 3,100 and 3,700." WOW, that place was huge!

[@benparrish9547]

Check out the lucky Friday mine, it’s in the same area and is insanely deep

[@rrice1705]

Yes indeed, and it wasn't even the deepest. Lucky Friday, to Sunshine's east, goes down to something like 6,200 feet. Think about that--a mine shaft that goes down more than a mile! A local miner once gave me a core sample they took out from down there that I still have.

[@PauperJ]

2:45 You can never go wrong with Malt-O-Meal Cocoa Dyno-Bites.

[@MultiMightyQuinn]

Another great video! Thanks, John!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

My pleasure!

[@TrineDaely]

Thank you for another great one Plainly!

[@dano8902]

Nearly a million subscribers...first off, congratulations! You deserve it! Seems like no time at all since I discovered your channel through watching your video on the Eel Riot!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!! It’s been a long time

[@animeandwieardness6132]

Love that your channel is growing, John. Keep up the good work and keep unlocking new anxieties for the rest of us 👍 ☠️

[@daviddavidson2357]

"I spent fifteen pounds on this silver ingot like a mug" You'd be well served buying more, gold even. Hard times ahead. Gold is up about £200 on the ounce in the past 3 months. If you'd put £1600 in the bank in January, you wouldn't have it turn into £1800 by July.

[@evilferris]

You forgot the scariest part part of your newly unlocked nightmare: "lost in the bellowing, toxic smoke from a fire and suffocating to death trapped hundreds of feet underground _IN IDAHO."_

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That is true

[@orppranator5230]

Better than Oregon

[@PassiveSmoking]

Why is the name Kellogg always associated with disasters? Because it's a cereal killer! 🥁

[@rrice1705]

😆

[@B3TH_anny]

This is so heartbreaking.

[@reginal.898]

Greetings from nice and sunny Hamburg! Have a great weekend, John!

[@brianedwards7142]

That one nearly won your choice of a bottle of wine or a foot spa.

[@chris_is_here_oh_no]

Excellent video, always the most fascinating documentaries!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Glad you like them!

[@adamfrazer5150]

There are fewer creators that I'd like to see get, truly, what they deserve - what they've e a r n e d. All the best in climbing to 1 million John 👍

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@chloeleo]

My childhood best friends father was lost in the pike river mine when she was 6, mining disasters impact families like nothing I’ve seen. They get emails to this day asking “if we find a bone do you want it?” and the preservation that caves of all kinds offer keep the tragedy alive in a way that few disasters can match. It’s surreal visiting that mine and seeing everything overgrown and abandoned but the actual mine is as it was on the day it happened besides rust and the slow degradation of the wood there.

[@maxhoffman8925]

Almost to 1 million!!!!! Love the videos please keep going!!!

[@historyinbitesizedchunks5857]

As someone who lives near Kellog, I often see the memorial while passing through on the freeway. Truly a horrific event.

[@SombraCheeks]

1 mil deserved great content

[@multipletanksyndrome]

Wow, almost a million subs. Good for you. I've been watching for a few years now. You make great content.

[@Twelveinchpianist]

As if a Saturday morning could get any better....new Plainly Difficult ...but I was wrong, it most certainly can!!!

[@jamesturner2126]

Port Chicago is a few miles east of San Francisco. In 1944, 11,000,000 pounds of explosives nearly made it disappear off the map. Naval ordinances. It is only widely known about in San Francisco. How about an episode? I promise I'll watch.

[@traymuse]

Am I crazy, or have virtually all these stories of large losses of human life been the result of corporate greed?

[@3v068]

No virtually all of these companies have made mistakes specifically because of greed.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

You're crazy, as greed was not the cause here but instead laziness at every level of command

[@samsonsoturian6013]

@@3v068 Found the shoplifter

[@jrmckim]

1:53 Have you ever observed old photographs such as this and pondered about the nature of their lives? How did they meet their demise? What were their thoughts and concerns? Did their aspirations materialize? Did they find marital bliss with their beloved? Did they grow weary of carrying their owner's crap and revolt? Did this uprising result in the formation of an Equestrian Union? And were the mules left to manage the aftermath?

[@tomb4496]

Thanks John

[@themidnightbanshee5927]

Woah almost a full bingo card

[@scottmeredith3359]

I live in work very near this place and have been to the monument many times. Still a lot of mining activity in the Silver Valley today

[@rrice1705]

Lucky Friday should still be good for another couple of decades last I checked. Do you know if Galena is still operating too?

[@dovebair]

I always appreciate you, always appreciate your videos. Maybe I’m crazy, but I really think that history is doomed to repeat itself if we don’t learn from what already happened. I love learning about the ways that things went wrong, not because I relish the loss of life, but because my passion is saving the lives of people today.it’s always good to know what the contributing factors to a disaster is, because life is plainly difficult baby

[@jacekatalakis8316]

The whole tale of the mine itself is absolutely crazy, the disaster is only one small part of it. Silver Thursday could be a good candidate for a video at some point given it was part of and arguably the end of a silver scandal

[@fastbike175]

the town of Muddy Illinois deserves an episode on your channel.

[@Twitch0331]

Your subscribers are well-deserved, Jon! Love your content. Keep up the great work. Much love from what remains of the United States. 🇺🇲

[@NotMykl]

There is a memorial to the mine workers of the Sunshine Mine off I-90 west. There are also signs pointing to where the mine was and IIRC you could still go up there to see the mine works.

[@pjschmid2251]

One thing that I was surprised was not noted in the investigation report was the lack of a means of communication with the surface. I mean seriously it might’ve been 1972 but intercom systems had been around for decades. There’s no reason they had no way of communicating or at the very least flashing warning lights and sirens. Having to send a person physically down to tell people to evacuate is unconscionable.

[@douglaschamberlain9773]

An even better solution was found: the “stench warning system”. A foul-smelling chemical was released into the air supplies, both for ventilation and to drive the pneumatic tools. When you smelled it, you got out.

[@redrum567]

Subscribed I've watched several already. I see you're approaching that million mark. I want to be a part of that milestone with y'all 😎 Carpe diem

[@kawaiiarchive357]

5:23 I want a metal sign with that exact design.

[@johnbaran577]

Subbed, i thought i was but now i definitely am! Love the work of this channel

[@3ftsteamrwy12]

MY mothers Great-grandfather emigrated to the US from what was then the Austro-Hungarian empire (hungarian), and the first job he could get was as a coal miner in Clearfiled PA in Center County. The experience to him was so bad he made his children pledge : 1. Under no circumstances to go to work in the mines, or any sort, anywhere, and: 2. To make THEIR children take that same pledge.