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In old days, death was common in area mines

Few people can argue the fact that underground coal mining is dangerous.

Although safety measures have improved in recent decades, accidents and deaths continue to occur.

The last disaster which was in the national news was last August, when six miners at Crandell Canyon in Utah were killed, as were three others who tried to rescue them.

In 2006, 12 miners were killed in an explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia and in 2001, 13 miners lost their lives in an Alabama incident.

Last fall, a worker in the only underground mine in my native Tuscarawas County had his arm amputated when it got caught in a machine.

I've been in an underground mine, and it's not a fun place to be, considering the miners are usually hundreds of feet below the surface, with thousands of tons of dirt and rock overhead.

Some of the mine tunnels are not very high, meaning miners have to hunch over while working. And, of course, there's the black dust which takes its toll on a miner's lungs.

Back in 1872, Portage County experienced one of Ohio's major coal mine disasters (10 lives lost).

According to a "Portage Pathways" column written by Record-Courier editor Roger DiPaolo in the fall of 2003, the disaster occurred July 3, 1872 in Atwater Township.

Portage County has never been a major coal mining area, but a few mines operated back in the late 1800s and early 1900s in its southeast corner.

At the Atwater Coal Co. mine, a 170-foot deep slope mine along what is now Route 224, nine men and a 9-year-old boy were killed when an apparent explosion triggered a fire.

Sixteen people were working at the time, and six of them escaped. The 10 dead included three brothers. All 10 died of suffocation and burns.

More than 100 men responded to the scene and put out the fire by 10 p.m. July 4, and as many as 300 helped to recover the bodies. It was estimated 3,000 people converged on the scene.

On Aug. 1, less than a month after the tragedy, miners were back working. Due to financial problems, the mine closed in July 1873.

According to DiPaolo, other coal mines were located in Palmyra and Deerfield townships. Hutson Coal Co. was one of the biggest, running a mine in Deerfield for about 25 years until 1930.

Smaller-scale slope and strip mining in Palmyra Township continued into the 1950s.

However, the Atwater disaster paled in comparison to some other Ohio mining disasters. The worst on Nov. 5, 1930, claimed 82 lives at Sunday Creek Coal Co.'s Millfield mine in Athens County.

Gases in the mine were ignited by a spark between a trolley car and its railing. Several of Sunday Creek's top executives, who were inspecting new safety equipment, perished.

Nine hours later, 19 miners were discovered alive 3 miles from the main shaft.

According to the Internet, two dilapidated old mine buildings still exist at the site, along with a smokestack and debris from the disaster. An Ohio historical marker has been placed there.

Ohio's second worst mining disaster (72 men killed) occurred March 16, 1940, when an explosion rocked Hanna Coal Co.'s No. 10 Willow Grove mine, about 5 miles southeast of St. Clairsville and 1 1/2 miles west of Neffs in Belmont County.

I visited that spot last October. It's nestled in a valley beside a creek and county highway. No visible remnants of the mine exist, and the entire site was reclaimed a few years ago.

I found it sad that a historical marker never was placed there.

On the day I visited the site, I talked to an oldtimer who had worked at the mine in the early 1950s. It originally opened in 1917, then reopened after the disaster and continued to operate until the mid-50s.

Five years before the Willow Grove disaster, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt toured the mine.

Ohio's last major mine disaster and the third worst occurred July 6, 1944, when 66 men died at Powhatan Mining Co.'s No. 1 mine near Bellaire in Belmont County.

A fire broke out when a rock fell, damaging a high-voltage trolley. Sparks ignited coal near the junction of the main passageway and a 3,600-foot deadend corridor.

At the time of the disaster, Powhatan No. 1 was Eastern Ohio's largest mine, employing 850 people.

Over the years, there have been several mines in the Powhatan series south of Bellaire. When I lived in Belmont County, at least one was operated by North American Coal Corp.

Powhatan No. 6 and the Century mine on the Belmont-Monroe border operate today under the control of Murray Energy, which also owns the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.

Powhatan No. 6 and Century are Ohio's two biggest underground mines, producing from 8 million to 11 million tons of coal annually in recent years.

On Nov. 29, 1940, 31 workers were killed in an explosion at the Ohio-Pennsylvania Coal Co.'s Nelms No. 1 mine northeast of Cadiz. About 150 other men were working in other parts of the mine and escaped.

Nelms No. 2's Cadiz portal nearby was once operated by the Harrison Mining Co. and in recent years by CAM Ohio Holdings. Ohio's deepest slope mine (530 feet), it is nearing the end of its life.

In the last couple of years, CAM Ohio has started a new mine now far away near Hopedale.

Way back on April 22, 1910, 18 miners were wiped out by an explosion at the Youghiogheny & Ohio Coal Co.'s mine at Amsterdam on the western edge of Jefferson County. Seven bruised and burned men were rescued alive.

Just across the Ohio River from Bellaire at Benwood, W.Va., 119 miners were killed on April 28, 1924, at a Wheeling Steel Corp. mine.

According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the three worst coal mining accidents in U.S. history were at Monongah, W.Va. in 1907 (362 deaths), Dawson, N.M. in 1913 (263 deaths) and Cherry, Ill. in 1909 (259 deaths).

E-mail: klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155