On this day in Labor History the year was 1937.
It was a tragic day of history repeating itself. An explosion occurred deep inside the Macbeth mine, in Logan West Virginia.
In the immediate aftermath the bodies of 2 miners were recovered.
Rescue crews scrambled to locate and save the other trapped miners confined in the mine but the explosion had occurred two miles from the mine’s entrance, making rescue extremely difficult and dangerous.
Newspapers from the region reporting on the rescue efforts painted a grim picture.
The Eugene Register Guard painted a heartbreaking picture of “stumbling rescue crews, so worn out they could only speak with difficulty of the terrors of the explosion in the deep pit.”
In all eighteen miners lost their lives on this date. For the miners and their families the day was cruelly tragic. For just six months earlier, on September 2, an explosion had occurred at the very same mine, claiming the lives of ten of their comrades.
The September explosion was blamed on a spark from a cart hauling the coal. It ignited the dangerous gases that saturate the air in the mines.
The company had claimed the mine was safe and the methane gas problem had been solved. But the second explosion likely had the same cause.
In West Virginia alone there have been more than 90 recorded mine explosions resulting in thousands of deaths since 1886.
The worst disaster occurred in 1907 when an explosion at the Monongah mine killed 361 workers.
In 2010, 29 miners tragically lost their lives at the Upper Big Branch coal mine. Mine workers have been some of the strongest and most vocal participants in the US labor movement.
Mine workers and their unions have continually fought and organized for safer working conditions and fair wages for this highly dangerous work.
Labor History in 2:00 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and The Rick Smith Show