Digging for disaster
By Tara Flanagan |
| Greg Wright illustration |
1. There oughta be a law
After the Fairmont Coal Company’s Mines No. 6 and 8 at Monongah, W. Va., exploded and killed 362 men and boys in 1907, Congress decided to toughen mining laws. That decade, the number of coal-mine fatalities exceeded 2,000 annually, leading to the 1910 establishment of the Bureau of Mines within the Department of the Interior. That particular blast was felt eight miles away, and is billed as the worst mine disaster in the history of the U.S. Ironically, the mines were considered models for the time, boasting electric machinery and mechanical fans in their larger spaces.
2. Dick does good
West Virginia has had more than its share of mining blowups, including the 1968 disaster at the Consol No. 9 mines at Farmington, just a few miles from Monongah. Out of 99 miners who were working at the time, 78 men died in the explosion and resulting fire, and the situation prompted the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health & Safety Act. President Richard M. Nixon signed the measure in 1969, one of the few things he ever did that didn’t piss off just about everyone. By that time, though, more than 100,000 Americans had died in mines since 1900. The new law upped federal inspections, gave miners the right to ask for inspections and gave benefits to miners with black lung disease. The law was updated in 1977 to protect coal, metal and nonmetal miners, and placed under the Department of Labor.
3. The makings of eerie lyrics
The January 1959 Knox Mine disaster prompted folk singer Tom Flannery to action after the walls of the River Slope Mine were accidentally punctured, sending 10 billion gallons of the Susquehanna River into the shafts. 12 men perished and their bodies were never found. Sixty-nine miners escaped, and one miner, Amadeo Pancetti, was awarded the Carnegie Medal for taking 32 miners to safety. Some of the lyrics of “The Knox Mine Disaster 1959”;
“Fear can spread the word through a quiet little town
And soon all eyes were frozen on the water bearing down
The iced river was pouring in, she was gonna have her way
But they had to try and stop her before she washed the valley away…”
4. As you wish
The infamous Fraterville Mine explosion of May 19, 1902, took the lives of all 184 miners who were working inside. The tiny village of Fraterville was left in a state of complete disarray, with only three adult men remaining after the disaster. While many of the miners were killed immediately by the explosion, some were able to pen notes to their families before suffocating. One of the miners wrote to his wife: “If I don’t seen you any more, bury me in the clothing I have. I want you to meet me in heaven. Good-bye. Do as you wish.” The youngest miner killed was 12 years old. The explosion also left about 1,000 children without fathers.
5. The blast rocked their world
On May 1, 1900, 200 miners perished in the Winter Quarters No. 4 coal mine in Utah. Local historians captured the incident as such: “Around 10:25 that morning, a low rumble had come from the depths of No. 4 and grown like rolling thunder. The portal belched smoke, dust, hot, foul air, burnt powder, splintered timbers and mangled mine cars with a force that was difficult to imagine. Then came a disquieting stillness.” Reports came in that a coal car driver who had been working near the mine entrance was thrown 200 yards across the gulch, with his horse thrown half that distance. That said, 103 miners reached safety after the blast.
6. Not so sunshiny
On the morning of May 2, 1972, 91 miners succumbed to carbon-monoxide poisoning after unexplained smoke filled the tunnels of the Sunshine Mine near Kellogg, Idaho. It is speculated that most of the miners dropped dead almost instantly after being overcome by smoke, but two men were able to find fresh air, surviving in the mine for a week before their rescue. While the disaster left some deep scars in the surrounding Silver Valley, leaving 200 kids without fathers, it prompted some major improvements in U.S. mining laws.
7. The worst metal mine
disaster
The June 8, 1917 Granite Mountain mine fire allegedly started when an assistant foreman accidentally touched his carbide lamp to a frayed piece of fallen electrical cable. The 168 men who died in the Granite Mountain fire marked the deadliest disaster in metal mining history in the United States, spawning a general strike across the hill. Those demands were met by the murder of a union organizer, who was dragged behind a car to a train bridge, where a note was pinned to his shirt, warning other union rebels to beware.
8. The worst in Montana coal
history
The blast came from deep in the bowels of Smith Mine No. 3 on Feb. 27, 1943. Although it was strangely silent at the mouth of the coal mine, located between the towns of Bearcreek and Washoe, the explosion was enough to jar a 20-ton locomotive from its tracks a quarter-mile away. Of the 77 men working the mine that Saturday, three came out alive. Some of the victims were nearly 8,000 feet into the earth at the time of the blast, which was attributed to methane buildup. The mine never reopened, and the event was largely responsible for the death of the local coal industry.
9. First sign of trouble
On April 27, 1917, a blaze at the Victor American Fuel Co. coal mine in Hastings killed 121 people. Today, a small monument can be found just west of the Ludlow Monument in Southern Colorado. The “Coal News” of 1917 put some of its coverage this way: “The main workings extend 3,600 feet under the mountain, where most of the men were believed to be imprisoned. … The first indication of trouble was a cloud of black smoke which bellowed from the mouth of the slope.”
