Hi, I'm Holly. And I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back.
Hey, hey everybody. We're back on the Zoom. Because of Timepoint Haley. Yeah, I think I swear I had COVID.
I never tested positive for it, but I had like every symptom of COVID. So I either had that or some new fun variant that or my test works fired, either one. It's true. Could be any of those things, but she did save us from, we were going to record on a different day and she was going to come to my house, but she wasn't feeling well.
So she saved us. Otherwise, you know, we could have been infected and we all could have had, you know, type of a favor. So it's not a good time. It was not a good time.
We took a lot of Benadryl. That was fun. Slapped a lot. That was great.
We used a lot of tissues. See, none of this plays out in my life. Like, I can't take Benadryl with my child. You know what I mean?
Like, I have to be functional. So I was very non-functional for about 12 hours. You're sick with a child sock. So I don't want to get sick.
No. Again, I will tell you a friend of mine and this person is going to remain nameless, but we found out during the holidays, we got a text that my friend had, lice. Like an adult friend? Yes.
Oh my god. So that's my biggest fear. I got a kid and I can't imagine now having it as an adult. It is as a parent.
It is my biggest fear. I mean, I know that sounds ridiculous, but it is one of my biggest fears. Yeah. So like we get to say, oh, I have lice.
So I'm like, what? I'm thinking, when did I last see this person? Where did I sit? Like what?
You know, all these things. And so I'm like checking my hair and instantly my scalp starts itching. Oh, but you're kind of itching now, just like thinking about it. Yeah.
And during the winter, I have a dry scalp anyway. Kind of flaky dry scalp in the middle of the winter anyway. I'm like, isn't my dry scalp? Or is it the lice?
Oh my gosh. And I'm like making people look at my head. I'm like looking at my kid's head, all the things. And like, no, we don't have lice.
They got, but my stupid friend attended church with the lice. Yes. I mean, I said, I am not sitting next to you. No.
And my friend was like, it's not like they jump. And I was like, yeah, you want to not sitting next to you. So I said, why did you go to church? That's wrong with you.
But that's another story. And she also doesn't listen to this podcast. So I would feel bad talking about her, but she's she's not here. And I'm not revealing it.
Could be anybody. So anyway, I sat across the church from her. Oh, good. I yeah.
And I told my son, I was like, don't run up and give her a hug. And he's like, why is she sick? And I was like, yes, yes, she's very, very ill, like don't touch her. And he's like, okay, you thought that was weird.
But yeah, nonetheless, I'm gonna do here. Yeah. And her mother was there as well. And her mother had on this giant Santa hat.
And I said, do you know to the mom? And the mom's like, I thought it too. And I'm like, you know, I need people. Oh, no.
So anyway, like I said, lice is one of my biggest fear. So now I'm wood. Hopefully I don't get it. I'm still like, I'm terrified of it.
And I work with teenagers, but like I work in a school. So like, it happens. Like we have, like I have teens that have, I had lice and I don't think I had high school. I had a middle school.
But we had it once in elementary school, had it once in middle school. And it was awful. And I never wanted again. And every time I hear there's like a case of lice, because like I hug my kids, like they'll all come up to me and like give me a hug or like, you know, whatever.
And I'm like, Oh God, if I like, exactly, whatever. Well, I just go back to what my mom always says about like when you're shopping. And you know, you're trying to have some things before you just have lice with the hat on like, nope. Nope.
I did have years ago, a client who I we had these bicycle helmets or something that we were. I don't know why we I guess we're trying to and he came in and tried on the bicycle helmet and then he was like, Oh, I don't want that one. And he puts it back and then we get a text the next day. Oh, yeah, he has lice.
Yeah, I'm like, Oh, okay. Burn it. Burn it. Put it in the sun.
Oh my gosh. Yes, but I'm lice free and good. You know, typhoid Haley didn't get to me. So, but we'll see what takes me down this winter.
Something will it's inevitable. Yeah, that's going to happen. And it usually happens around March. So for some reason.
Yeah, we shall see. What you got today? Well, this is the tide this well, not type this or lice related at all. I we are going to talk about a large scale disaster.
We're going to talk about the modern, Monica. I don't know if that's how you say it. M-O-N-O-N-G-H mining disaster. Oh, yeah.
In West Virginia. Oh, so this happened in 1907. Oh, we're going back in time. I appreciate it.
And it's been so long since I've written this that I'm like, my mixture is West Virginia. I don't know what could be anywhere. Maybe East Virginia? Maybe East Virginia.
Yeah. Perhaps South Virginia. North Virginia. North Virginia.
No, no. In nowhere in my writing did I actually write where this place is. So, we're going to make sure that it's West Virginia. Someone I can hear people screaming at me.
I hear people saying I'm from that town and you're pronouncing it wrong. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. West Virginia.
It's literally right there. Okay. Okay. Oh, I got it.
That's all good now. Good job. Thanks. Okay.
So, this happened on a Friday, which is like, I feel like the worst day for a disaster to happen. Probably. Probably. Right.
It actually knows that from 28 AM. Oh, okay. So, we're just getting rolling. We're just thinking like, oh, god, we just have a few more hours and we're good to go.
So, this is Friday, December 6, 1907. This was a pretty large scale operation. Mining operation, as most mines were at the time. So, officially, there were about 420 men in the two mines, but they think the number, like the actual number was a lot higher because they had a lot of unregistered people that didn't, like, so officially registered workers would take their relatives into the mines to help.
And that's for money. Yeah. So, they would take a couple too. Because the children are in the mines.
Oh, my god. So, it's like a family of berries. Pack up the whole family and head to the mines. Bring the baby.
Yeah, everybody goes. It's not good. It's bad. Okay.
Yeah. Everybody's in the mine. So, get your teeth, Granny. It's time to go to the mine.
Sorry. The mines. Yeah. So, at 10, 28 AM, an explosion occurs in one section of the mine, which then triggered a larger explosion in another area of the mines.
We got two different events. This, I mean, thankfully, instantly killed pretty much everybody. That was in the mine. So, very quick.
Very, like, probably never saw coming. The blast caused quite a bit of damage to both the mine and the surface of the mine. So, it was such a big explosion that, like, the surface ground was the first joke. Yeah, like crazy.
So, the ventilation systems, which are necessary to keep fresh air coming into the mines were destroyed, along with many of the rail cars and equipment. The entrance and ventilation fan of mine number eight were destroyed, but they did little damage to the number six slope. So, we've got, like, this is a huge system. Yeah, it happened to me.
So, yeah, I'm not great. So, inside the mine, there are these timbers that support the roof and they were blown down, which caused, you know, even further problems as the whole sort of collapsed into the mine. The official cause of the explosion wasn't determined, but investigators and representatives from the Fairmount Coal Company and the Federal Geological Survey said that they figured it was either an electrical spark or one of the miners had an open flame lamp and it ignited cold dust or methane gas. Ah, yeah.
So, not great. Where is my lantern? I don't have it any bit. Oh, here it is.
Yeah, just come. Not good. I don't know why they're English. I mean, for some old tiny, it just comes out.
Well, there are several different, I mean, migrant workers in here. So, you never know. So, the first volunteer rescuers got into the mines about 25 minutes after that first explosion. I was pretty fast.
Yeah. So, their biggest threats to the rescuers, though, were fumes, particularly at Black damp, which is a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen that contains no oxygen, and white damp, which is just carbon monoxide. So, they don't have any, you know, the fancy breathing apparatus is that, you know, you see firefighters and all these other people, search and rescue people. So, they're just going in willy-nilly.
I don't even know if they're going out because carbon monoxide, like, that'll knock you out. Yeah. So, you know, you couldn't breathe well in any of the areas. So, rescuers could only stay in the mine for about 15 minutes at a time before they like ran out of breathable air.
Right. So, in an effort to kind of protect themselves, some of the miners tried to cover their faces with jackets or other pieces of cloth that they had. And while, you know, that might have been good to filter out any kind of particles that were in the air, it doesn't do anything if you don't actually have oxygen to breathe. Right.
Yeah. So, it's kind of a lose-lose situation in here. Like, it's, you've survived the blast, rescuers can't get to you. You don't have any air.
Like, I'm on team. I'm out in the first blast. Like, blow me to smithereens, get me out of here. I feel that way too.
Like, I wouldn't even know what would hit me and then I'm, you know, sitting with Jesus. Yeah, that's why I was like, if I had a choice in the matter, that's the one I'm thinking. Yeah, the teeth will fly right out of my mouth and I'll, you know, be sitting in with the angles. I would rather do that than dying a slow and excruciatingly painful death.
Oh, absolutely. I think many of you must people agree. Yeah, I can't see other people saying, you know what I want to be in the other end. That sounds like trapped.
Yeah. Yeah. No, no, good. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, this toxic fume issue was also compounded by the damage caused to the entire infrastructure of the initial explosion.
Sorry, I'm running out of time. I had 10 minutes. Oh, gee, we have a abbreviated zoom. That's okay.
So, okay, here we go. All right. So toxic fumes, they were a problem. We don't like that.
No. Mines require these big ventilation fans to prevent this toxic buildup. So they are like filtering in clean air and taking out the bad air, which what fans do. So the initial explosion had destroyed, like I said, all of that ventilation equipment in number eight, my number eight, and disabled the fan in my number six, they were able to reconnect the fan for number six.
Oh, good. But do you know, are you to clear the mind of gases further delayed and complicated rescue recovery efforts? So not great. Yeah.
So one of the miners was a Polish man. So he was rescued and there were four other Italian miners that escaped. The official death toll stood at 362, 171 of them were Italian migrants. So most of them were migrant workers, like I said.
So we've got 171 Italian migrants and then some others that were killed, included Russians, Greeks, and immigrant workers from Austria, Hungary. No time. So this was like a big mining town slash community. So they're they left behind 216 women that were widowed.
And the miners left behind 475 children. Wow. With a further 31 that were born after the disaster. So 31 women.
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Was there any kind of like way of like organizations or anything that could like support these families? I mean, what did because it wasn't like a women probably easily could go get jobs, you know?
Right. Yeah. So there was some like some things that helped, you know, but not I mean, not a lot. I mean, it's 19,07 women don't matter what you're talking about.
That is true. That is true. You just read, you know, you're just telling children like that's all you're good for. Yeah.
Yeah. I didn't want but they did they did have some relief efforts. There were some very like, you know, very good philanthropists and things that we'll talk about later that came along. But so as a result of this explosion along with some other disasters that happened all the time, the public started demanding additional oversight to help regulate mines because it was kind of like a referral do whatever they're kind of thing.
Now my job. Yeah. So in 1910, Congress actually created the United States Bureau of Mines. And the goal was for them to investigate and inspect mines to reduce explosions and to limit the waste of human and natural resources.
So pretty good. Yeah. So the Bureau of Mines also set up field officers that would train mine crews, provide rescue services and investigate disasters, which is all things that apparently weren't a thing. Well, I'm glad it became a thing.
It sounded those things have to happen. Yeah, right. Okay. So there have been some memorials that have gone up and like things to help survivors.
In 2003, to commemorate the explosion, the Italian commune of San Giovanni and Theor, which is where many of the miners had immigrated from, they actually erected a memorial to those killing the disaster. In 2007, the Mononga Heroine, a statue dedicated to the miners' widows, was unveiled, which is kind of cool. And the monument was directed due to the efforts of father Everett Francis Briggs, who was a local Catholic priest and a historian on the disaster. In 2007, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the explosion, the Italian region of Mollis presented a bell to the town of Mononga.
And today, the bell sits in the town square. That's really cool. Just kind of cool. And then 2009, the president of the Italian Republic conferred the order of merit for labor upon the victims of the disaster.
So just kind of like an additional honor. So after the disaster, the mine relief committee was established in order to provide for those affected by the event. So there were some subcommittees set up and they were in charge like they were two different ones. So there was an executive committee and a subscription committee.
So the executive committee in charge of raising national awareness about that particular disaster and the other committee is in charge of receiving and directing aid to survivors and their families. Yeah. So there were some others involved in the relief effort and that included philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who's hero of funds provided relief to survivors and is killed during rescue and recovery work. And the Red Cross actually dispatched a special representative, Margaret Beyington, to assist with gathering information on survivors so that they could coordinate some relief effort.
Interesting. Yeah. And you know, they never really figured out exactly what caused, you know, the explosion, which, you know, made people be like, hey, we really need to figure out how to make this safer. Not safe down there.
Yeah. Yeah. Not safe. So one notable thing that kind of came out of this is they were looking at the whole complex and noticed that mines number six and number eight were actually connected by a shaft in order to allow both minds to be ventilated from a single entrance.
And this really put both of those minds at equal risk if there was ever an accident. So even though even after this, when they were like, hey, this is a problem, the Fairmount Coal Company did not disconnect the two lines. They just decided like, yeah, it's probably fine. Yeah.
So there were other problems included, the use of mechanical electrical equipment and failure to adequately water the hallways in order to sell dust, more install and more adequate dust removal system. So it was still not great. Yeah. Like they put all the stuff in place to try to make a safe and then they were like, when I can't even imagine the guys who would then go back, go down there again, you know what I mean?
Like, and if you did survive this tragedy, talk about like the PTSD, like, I would want to go down there. I would be like hyperventilating and like, no thanks. I'll just die for. Yeah.
Well, I take the cut this short, but that's all I got. And we got a minute and 42 seconds left on our zoom. All right, y'all. This has been fun.
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Yeah, let's do the entire state of West Virginia because I can't pull up thing. That's okay. That's cheap. But I like that.
Sorry. Oh my god. Is that a knife? What the hell?
I'm just gonna hit you with a ruler. Thank goodness that we're virtual. My god. Typhoid Haley.
All right, y'all. We will see you or you'll hear us next week. Yes. I see you because I'm looking straight at Haley and I'm camera.
All right. See you later. Bye. All right, I'm gonna stop.