Our Disasters and the Knox Coal Mine Disaster Some disaster markers from Wyoming Valley. The 1959 Knox disaster effectively brought an end to anthracite mining in the area; the mines were flooded, and twelve miners lost their lives. The Avondale and Baltimore killed many more. The actual site of the Knox isn't marked, but we headed roughly in the right direction, and some neighbors showed us the way - down the hill and most likely to the right. http://www.alansondheim.org/Avondale.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/Baltimore.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/Knox1.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/Knox2.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/Knox3.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/Knox4.jpg The mining stats are gruesome - perhaps 60,000 miners died in the century before the mining stopped - as a result of accidents only, not counting disease such as black lung. (I'm not sure of these figures; some sites list only in the hundred. A study I did through the stats listed around 6000 in one decade of the 19th century. In 1907, around 3700 miners died. The stats are hard to come by and I've seen wild estimates; I think the numbers lower than I originally thought. In any case it's high enough. This chart is sobering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coal_mining_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Coal_Fatalities_-_US.png _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
