Hutchinson, Riverton

Joplin, March 29.--Six weeks of search for the body of Riverton Hutchinson, pioneer hard rock lead and zinc miner, who was drowned Friday afternoon, February 11, at the old Bullfrog Mine at Smelter Hill, was rewarded at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon when the body was found floating on the surface of the water in the lower drift, one hundred feet from the mill shaft and two hundred feet from the old Sunday Mine shaft in which he was drowned.

Pump experts in charge of rescue work yesterday estimated that 90,000,000 gallons of water was taken from the mine in the 33 days of pumping. Allowing for a number of break-downs, approximately 2000 gallons of water were removed every minute or 2,880,000 gallons every 24 hours.

A remarkable feature of the project is that less than $3,500 was expended in financing the search. Men who aided in the rescue work volunteered their services, but several of them received some money for their efforts, not exceeding $10 a week in any instance.

Hutchinson's body was found floating face down and was headed toward the mill shaft, where it was being drawn by the suction of an eight-inch pump. The large ten-inch pump at the Sunday Mine shaft in which he was drowned, was thrown out of commission at 3 o'clock Sunday morning because of a heavy rain and thunder storm.

The body was found by Fred Coffelt and George Gilbert, who were occupants of a boat that had been lowered into the ground Sunday afternoon. They were barely able to move under the roof of the drift, which connects the two shafts. Keith Shafter and Charles Shafer were in the ground at the time and assisted in wrapping body in a canvas before sending it out.

The body was badly decomposed, having been in the water 44 days. An examination at the parlors of the Jarvis undertaking company revealed that the miner had received a heavy blow on the back of his head, probably inflicted as he was hurled down the shaft by an avalanche of water, gravel and rock that caved-in from the surface of the shaft while he was working on a suspended platform about 40 feet from the surface. Hutchinson, who was 54 years old, was a pioneer miner in this district, having worked here nearly 20 years