History's A Disaster
Bloody history and bloodier crimes. Andrew takes a weekly look at all things bloody. From natural disasters to man made atrocities
History's A Disaster
The Monongah Mine Disaster
America's deadliest mining disaster unfolded in an instant on December 6, 1907, when a broken coupling pin sent coal carts careening down rails, showering sparks through dusty mine air. What happened next would change mining safety forever.
The Monongah Mining Disaster tells the harrowing story of miners trapped beneath West Virginia soil when explosions ripped through connected mines #6 and #8. With entrances collapsed, ventilation destroyed, and toxic gases filling every passage, rescue workers faced a nightmare scenario as they desperately dug through debris in 15-minute shifts, their faces covered with nothing but jackets against the poisonous air.
This episode exposes the deadly conditions that made the disaster inevitable: miners using open-flame torches amid coal dust, exposed electrical wiring, dangerous explosive practices, and mines connected by wooden doors—a configuration already outlawed everywhere except West Virginia. We explore how profit-driven decisions by the Fairmont Coal Company created the perfect environment for catastrophe, from employing immigrant workers with few options to allowing children as young as eight to work underground.
Beyond the official death toll of 362 lies a darker truth about undocumented workers, overwhelming grief as caskets lined town streets, and the corporate investigation that predictably blamed worker carelessness rather than systemic failures. Yet from this tragedy came meaningful change—the creation of the Bureau of Mines, new safety regulations, and the first steps toward protecting miners' lives.
Mining remains dangerous work today, but the Monongah disaster forced America to reckon with the human cost of coal extraction. Share this episode with someone who appreciates forgotten stories that shaped our nation, and leave a review to help others discover these crucial moments when history truly became a disaster.
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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/
So do coal miners get off December 6th. It is National Miners Day, after all, and if you didn't know that, join the club. I had no idea either. It was created in 2009 by an act of Congress as a way to thank and honor miners. December 6th is also the anniversary of the worst mining accident in US history. So, yep, let's celebrate miners on the anniversary of a whole bunch of them getting killed. Anyways, way back in 1907, an explosion ripped through the Fairmont Coal Company's number 6 and number 8 mines. In the explosion and the collapse that followed, over 300 miners were killed. So what happened? I'm Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. So tonight we are digging into the earth and taking a look at the worst mining disaster in American history, and for that we are going to Monongah, west Virginia.
Speaker 1:And this was a straight up mining town. The coal industry was constantly pushing westward in its never-ending search for more coal and greater profits, so they set up a lot of these little towns, towns who only existed at the whims of the coal company and Monongah, west Virginia, was no different. The Fairmont Coal Company had a stranglehold on the town, which is pretty easy to do when the company's manager is also the mayor of the town. Add in shitty wages and company stores with extremely high prices, and most people didn't have many options, especially when most of the people working the mines were immigrants. Straight off the boat and railroaded down to West Virginia to work the mines, and since profit was the name of the game and there wasn't a whole lot of regulations when it came to mining in the early 1900s, safety wasn't a major concern and they cut a whole lot of corners. The number six and eight mine entrances were over a mile apart, but the mines were connected to each other by a heavy wooden door, a practice that had already been outlawed in every other state in all of Europe. West Virginia was the only place that this was still being done. Now these mines could be vented separately, but being connected to each other meant that they could both be vented out a single entrance, and it would also make transporting coal between the two mines a lot easier. Also, while they would at least somewhat water down the passageways to damp down coal dust, no efforts to this effect were made in the rooms that the actual mining was happening, which made the rooms, especially in the winter, extremely dusty. They did not have adequate equipment to keep up with it. So it was done almost as an afterthought. Plus, being the middle of winter, the water taps freezing over was a common problem.
Speaker 1:Now, electricity in the mine came from exposed copper wires which didn't extend very far, and since they didn't have things like headlamps or flashlights, they used open flame torches to see deeper into the mine. And these mines ran deep, stretching over 500 miles. As they sloped down into the earth following a seam of coal, they used electric cutting machines and black powder to mine the coal, creating rooms. As they dug deeper into the earth, the heavy cutting equipment would be used to undercut the coal seam, and then holes would be drilled by hand about six feet deep and filled with black powder. Once the black powder went off, the force of the explosion would break up the coal seam from the wall. From there, the miners would break the coal up further with pickaxes and load it onto mine carts. And since the miners got paid by how much coal was mined that day, they would cut corners whenever they could to mine more coal faster. To do this, they would often do what's called shooting off the solid, which is basically the same method to break up the seam, except they skip the part where they undercut the coal first, which made it way more dangerous. Without the coal being undercut, the explosive force had nowhere else to go except back out towards the miners. It would send a lot of sparks and chunks of coal flying back into the mine, which again smart idea. Let's send a bunch of sparks into a mine full of coal dust and potential methane gas pockets. Anyways, the use of electric motors and mine carts helped to pull the ore back up to the surface and they would pull a lot of coal out. A total of over 2,000 tons of coal a day was pulled out of both mines. And these mines ran every day, all day. There was no stopping, no holidays, no weekends. It was an around-the-clock operation.
Speaker 1:Friday December 6th started out like any other day. The day shift was starting their day before the ass crack of dawn. Officially, over 400 miners checked into work. Unofficially, that number was much higher. A lot of the workers often brought undocumented workers to assist them in the mines. Most of them were relatives or their own kids, because apparently every day was bring your kid to work day in the early 1900s. It was also extremely cold that day, so most of them were bundled up in what passed for winter clothing. As they worked, they filled up the mine carts, which were loaded down and pulled up to the surface of the mine.
Speaker 1:Shortly before 10.30 am, a train of 14 cars loaded with nearly 40 tons of coal was being pulled up from the no 6 mine when a coupler pin broke and sent the cars flying back down the rails out of control. As it descended, it was kicking up sparks into the dusty air before crashing near the bottom. Within minutes of the accident, an explosion ripped through the mine. Through the mine, this explosion traveled through both mines, setting off a larger explosion in another section of the mine. As the explosions ripped through the mine, it destroyed wood support timbers, causing numerous roof collapses. Pockets of methane gas and coal dust were set ablaze. The entrance to the number eight mine was completely destroyed, along with the ventilation fan. The entrance to number six was completely blocked by debris and fire. Mine carts had been tossed hundreds of feet away. The rails they used were bent and twisted and sent flying to spear into the ground. Ventilation shafts were buried. As the explosion changed the shape of the earth, thousands of tons of stone collapsed and filled the lower levels of the mine. The explosion was felt miles away. The blast would destroy windows in Menanga. Then the rain from the explosion pelted the town. Stone pieces of wood and chunks of metal rained down on the unsuspecting town.
Speaker 1:Rescue attempts would begin within a half hour of the explosion. Lacking any sort of official fire brigades, it would be the locals of Menanggak who organized the rescue attempts. Miners and medical staff from surrounding towns would eventually join in the attempt, and these rescue attempts were hampered from the start. With the entrances blocked, they had to dig their way in and, with the coal seam burning, the entrances were extremely hot, like unapproachably hot. Eventually, they would be able to get close enough to start digging out the entrance. Everyone from town pitched in. Large rocks were dug out by hand and horses would be used to pull twisted pieces of metal out of the way. It took them 25 minutes to dig out the entrance the number eight, and they stepped into a nightmare.
Speaker 1:Almost 100 miners had made it to the collapsed entrance. Only half of them were identifiable. The rest of them were so badly burned. Some of them had fused together. Miners typically wore a metal tag to help with identification in case of a disaster like this, but the heat was so bad that it had melted the tags, making them unusable.
Speaker 1:Lacking any sort of breathing gear, rescuers could not spend more than 15 minutes in the mine, with the ventilation shafts and fans destroyed. The mines were filling up with fumes, black damp, a mix of carbon dioxide and nitrogen that contained zero oxygen, along with what they called white damp or carbon dioxide, was filling up sections of the mine. These toxic fumes, the smell of burnt flesh and fires filled the mine. Rescuers tried to protect themselves by covering their faces with jackets and cloth, which is great. They did what they could, but while this would help with some areas, it would do absolutely nothing to help in areas without any oxygen. They would eventually be able to get the number six mine fan working again, but with only one fan working it would be extremely slow going to vent out the toxic fumes that were building up in the mines. It would take over a week for rescuers to make their way all the way through. They had to put out fires and deal with cave-ins along with pockets of toxic fumes as they worked their way through. Three of the rescuers would end up dying in the attempt.
Speaker 1:Nearly every single miner caught in the mines was killed either in the blast or the days that followed, as they slowly suffocated on the toxic fumes. Only one miner was rescued. Four others managed to make their own way out. The official death toll is 362, but the real number is most likely much higher. The number of miners that had checked in to work is up for debate, since the board they used to check in was destroyed in the blast. Estimates range somewhere between four and five hundred were there that day. Plus, there was all those undocumented workers that were brought in, including children as young as eight. The mortuary in town would eventually be overrun as they pulled all these bodies out of the mines, so caskets would end up lining the streets of Monongah as they waited for the funerals to follow.
Speaker 1:The actual cause of the initial explosion has never been officially determined, with the most likely theory being a spark from either the mine cart crash or a black powder explosion igniting the coal dust that filled the mine. Cart crash or a black powder explosion igniting the coal dust that filled the mine. There would be multiple investigations in finding out exactly what happened. Fairmont Coal Company's own investigation concluded the accident was caused by minor error, most likely carelessness with the open flame torches they had to use to see. But whatever the cause of the accident, it was the final straw for some people. In 1907, 3,241 people were killed in mining accidents, over 700 of them just in December alone.
Speaker 1:The public outcry was huge and demanded answers. In 1908, president Roosevelt pushed for a new federal agency to investigate mine accidents and teach accident prevention. It would take two years for the Bureau of Mines to be formed. Field offices would be set up to help train mine crews, provide rescue services and investigate disasters. New safety regulations would also be adopted, like the requirements to keep the mines sprayed down, to reduce the amount of coal dust in the air, and children under 12 would no longer be allowed to work in the mines and 12-year-olds working the mines still isn't great, but at least they were taking steps in the right direction and things would eventually get better.
Speaker 1:While mining is still pretty dangerous today, it's still a hell of a lot safer than it was 100 years ago, of a lot safer than it was 100 years ago. And that was the Monongah mining accident, the worst mining accident in US history and the catalyst for much-needed changes in the industry. Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your app of choice and you can reach out to the show at historyisadisaster at gmailcom with questions, comments or suggestions. And don't forget to follow the show on social media at historyisadisaster and share the show, because sharing is caring and if there was more caring in the world, maybe history wouldn't be a disaster. Thanks and goodbye.