Mining Disasters of the Wyoming Valley

by Bryan Glahn

Overview

Ten-year-old Willie Hatton was excited to visit his father at the Avondale Mine on the morning of September 6, 1869. Sadly, Willie would die in his father's arms that day, and so would 108 other miners, all victims of a horrific fire that tore through the shaft, trapping the men and boys and blocking the only exit. The communities of the Wyoming Valley know firsthand the human cost of the anthracite industry. From a cave-in at Twin Shaft to an explosion at the Baltimore Tunnel to the Susquehanna River crashing through the roof at Knox, thousands of miners left for work in the morning never to return. Sadly, few of the tragedies could be called accidents. Profits took precedence over safety, leaving workers to pay the price for negligence, corruption, and greed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467115261
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	02/22/2016
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	623,966
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Mining Disasters of the Wyoming Valley tells the tragic story of the workers on whose backs the anthracite industry was built. Drawing on a family history of coal mining and archival photographs from several historical societies, Bryan Glahn captures the daily struggle of the men and boys who ventured below the earth to find anthracite to power a nation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 Anthracite Transforms a Valley 9

2 Dangers of Coal Mining 37

3 Avondale Fire 67

4 Twin Shaft Cave-in 87

5 Baltimore Tunnel Explosion 99

6 Knox Mine Disaster 107

Bibliography 127