By Damian Phillips, The Exponent Telegram
MONONGAH, W.Va. — On Dec. 6, 1907, a massive explosion ripped through the Fairmont Coal Company’s No. 6 and 8 mines in Monongah, killing more than 360 men, as well as many unrecovered and unidentified children of miners who went underground.
This was the deadliest mining disaster in American history.
“The official death toll is a lot lower than what the estimate is because of the large number of children who were working at the mine,” said Hal Gorby, professor of West Virginia and Appalachian History at West Virginia University.
Prior to the mechanization of mining, there was a long-standing practice of bringing children or other young relatives into the mines in order to produce greater tonnage of coal. At the time, miners were paid on tonnage dug as opposed to a standard wage.