Mannington Mine Disaster

Mountaineer Coal Company operated a series of mines in Marion County, West Virginia.  On November 20, 1968, an explosion occurred in one of the mines - the Consol No. 9 Mine (also known as Mannington Mine).  Ninety-nine miners were in the mine at the time of the blast. Seventy-eight died while twenty-one made it to the surface.  Hazel Dickens wrote the song “Mannington Mine Disaster,” performed here by Rich Kirby and Michael Kline on their 1977 album They Can’t Put It Back on the June Appal label.

"We read in the paper and the radio tells
Us to raise our children to be miners as well.
Oh tell them how safe the mines are today
And to be like your daddy, bring home a big pay.

Now don't you believe them, my boy,
That story's a lie.
Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine
Where seventy-eight miners were buried alive,
Because of unsafe conditions your daddy died."

Mannington Mine Disaster