I visit the small quiet and unique town of Monongah West Virginia several times a year as I take care of one of the oldest AM Radio broadcasting sites in the state WMMN 920 AM " The Ticket" owned by LHTC Laurel Highlands Total Communications of WV. built in 1927
Riding thru the old coal mining town you would never suspect it was once the scene of extreme carnage and grief or that it played its part in the worst industrial accident in the united states in 1907,
that is till you drive by the town hall and there you find the 3 monuments to the tragedy
The town is quiet today with some boarded up old business in the main section of town and a few old business that still operate along US 19 But this was not the case on
6th of December 1907 in what would be the deadliest year ever for loss of coal miners lives.
Officially 361 miners lost their lives that day in shaft 4 and 6 of the monongah mine but the toll was much higher as many as 461 graves where dug for the miners many children and relatives who went into the mines that day to help the person hired by the mine so there was no record of them being there
4 miner escaped the mine but later died of injury's.
It was aprox. 10:20 am on a cold winter morning when the explosion in the Fairmont Coal company's Monongah 6&8 Shafts erupted shaking the entire town and lifting it nearly a foot windows where broken as far as Fairmont 10 miles away almost the entire upper part of the town was destroyed from all the shaking. There was total chaos all the local mining officials where missing or killed luckily it was the feast of St. Nicholas and many of the miners being of Italian Heritage had taken the day off and went running to the mine some tried to rescue the trapped miners and quickly fell dead to the deadly gases. The streets where soon filled with coffins as help quickly arrived by train , trolley and wagon from nearby mining towns . Fairmont Mining would not pay for head stones for the miners and where less than cooperative in helping the surviving families.
This was just one of many horrific story's to come out of this tragedy you will read when you do a google search of the disaster including the fact when they went back in to once again mine they would find body parts and just rebury them in the mine. The mining Company did not give one dam about the immigrants.
However it did lead to better enforced safety rules in mines and this lead to fewer deaths each year.
Mining today is by far safer than it ever has been and tragedy's like Farmington still happen when rules are ignored and not enforced.
:As a side note. Did you know that Pepperoni Rolls where invented by the coal miners of WV as a way to carry a nutritious lunch which held up in the mines instead of taking in a loaf of bread and sausage.
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