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Holden mine disaster memorial taking shape

Logan Banner photo by Owen Wells The memorial stone commemorating the lives of the 18 miners lost during the Holden 22 mine disaster in March 1960 stands ready to be installed at the memorial site. Eventually, the stone will be housed in a brick structure along 22 Mine Road near the border of Logan and Mingo County.
Logan Banner photo by Owen Wells
The memorial stone commemorating the lives of the 18 miners lost during the Holden 22 mine disaster in March 1960 stands ready to be installed at the memorial site. Eventually, the stone will be housed in a brick structure along 22 Mine Road near the border of Logan and Mingo County.

LOGAN, W.Va. — On March 8, 1960, a slate fall reportedly started a coal fire at the Island Creek Coal Company mine at 22 Holden. Carbon monoxide gas resulting from the fire would eventually claim the lives of 18 miners.

Twenty men were trapped by the slate fall and fire, but snow and cold temperatures on the surface hampered efforts to extinguish the flames. Two miners, Kyle Blair and Willis Carter were reportedly with the group of 20 miners and decided to crawl through a narrow passage to try to find a way out. Eight days after the slate fall and resulting fire, the bodies of the remaining 18 men were found.

For years, the absence of a memorial has left a blank page at the end of the disaster’s history. While mining is still active at the 22 Holden mine, the community which was built to house the mine’s workers has been demolished. A road now sits where rows of coal company houses once held miners and their families.

With the intent of preserving the history surrounding the Holden 22 mine community and the disaster while memorializing the 18 lives lost, the Holden 22 Miners Memorial Committee (HMMC) was formed in 2014…

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