Black, James

James Black, about 60 years old, a veteran prospector, was killed instantly at 9:30 am this morning when he fell thirty feet to the bottom of a 42-foot shaft on some mining land near Lone Elm Road, a half-mile northwest of Roanoake. He was a prospector for self and W. M. Hastings Mine. Black was standing on a platform that had been tied to the end of the windlass rope, and fell when the rope broke. He received a fractured skull. Firemen removed the body from the shaft and the body was taken to the Hurlbut morgue. The platform upon which Black was standing is about four feet square. Heavy wire was tied to each corner and brought to a point above the center of the platform. The rope then was tied to the apex of the wires. Firemen who examined the device said the heavy wire had cut into the rope causing it to break under Black's weight.

Black's partner in the prospecting work is W. M. Hastings. Hastings was manning the windless when the rope broke. Black had been lowered into the shaft twelve feet and had started to dig niches into the walls in preparation for cribbing the shaft. The body will be held at the Hurlbut morgue pending an investigation by Coroner R. M. Stormont.