Double disaster at coal mine gets historic marker; 1976 coverage by local weekly is posted online

Thirty-four years ago yesterday and tomorrow, explosions in the Scotia Coal Co. mine in Letcher County, Kentucky, killed 26 miners and federal inspectors. The first one killed 15 miners, and the second killed eight miners and three inspectors who were on a mission to investigate what happened. On the 34th anniversary of the first blast, a historic highway marker about the double disaster was placed on US 119 at Oven Fork. (Harlan Daily Enterprise photo by Nola Sizemore; for her story, click here)

The disasters, caused by poor ventilation and a buildup of methane, led to new federal and state laws and regulations to make coal mines safer. That effort goes on; a Labor Department official said at a public meeting in Letcher County yesterday that the Mine Safety and Health Administration "is trying to have new regulations to limit miners' dust exposure ready for public hearings in the fall," reports Dori Hjalmarson of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Gregory Wagner, the deputy assistant secretary of labor for MSHA policy, said the miners and inspectors died at Scotia because "production was chosen over the lives of the men who mined the coal. . . . We're here to remember why it happened and to make sure it never happens again."

Some of the best reporting on Scotia was done by the local weekly newspaper, The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, published then and now by the Gish family. PDFs of its initial coverage are available here.