Existing comment:
The Monongah Disaster:
On the cold morning of December 6, 1907, a huge blast rocked the small mining town of Monongah, West Virginia, heralding the worst mining disaster in American history. It was just after 10 o'clock in the morning and a full work force of men and boys were toiling beneath the earth when that an [sic] underground explosion shook mine Nos. 6 and 8 of the Fairmont Coal Company and changed the town of Monongah forever.
Although the General Manager of the two mines reported to the Fairmont Times that 478 men had been checked off entering the mine that day, numerous accounts after the disaster record that 362 men and boys lost their lives. The exact figure is difficult to known because of the common practice of additional workers who were often family or friends accompanying a miner into the mines to load coal using the registered worker's tags to mark the mine cars they loaded. The miner would pay the additional worker out of his pay. According to some records, a study of the Monongah cemetery indicates that more than 500 victims were buried after the disaster. |