Talk:Monongah mining disaster

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 19 January 2021 and 30 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lrr00006.

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Untitled

This article is a wreck. It cites three different totals for the number of victims: 362, "upward of 500," and 956. One of these is accurate, the others aren't. It needs cleanup and rewriting badly. 75.195.36.90 (talk) 22:09, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

This passage is confusing: "In all, the lives of 362 boys and men were lost in the underground explosion, leaving 250 widows and over 1000 children without support. In October 1964 Reverend Everett Francis Briggs stated that a fairer estimate of the victims of the Monongah Disaster would be upward of 500. The victims were actually 956.." If 362 lives were lost, where do these 956 victims come from? 68.183.65.148 01:40, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

also- "The victims were actually 956, the vast majority of them (171) were Italians".. how is 171 out of 956 a "vast majority".. I think these numbers are messed up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.116.211 (talk) 00:02, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

The following was found to be incorrect:

"and has been described as "the worst mining disaster in American History", however, it is not since there have been multiple other mine disasters with higher death tolls.".

I wondered what worse accident there had been, so I started looking. On the "Mining accident" page I found a claim that Monongah was the deadliest, and found a reference. This reference states no higher death tolls and to me it is more reliable than the uncited claim that this accident was not the deadliest, so I have removed this claim. Andreas Willow 08:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

It all depends what you call a victim. Arguably, the widows and children left behind were victims, even though they weren't killed in the disaster. Confusing, but perhaps Reverend Everett Francis Briggs was trying to make a point that the disaster had a greater impact than simply on those who died. Skinsmoke (talk) 13:20, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

For corrections to the history of the disaster see Virginia History, Fall, 2013 pp. 63-92. Joseph L. Tropea — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joseph L.Tropea (talk • contribs) 18:09, 12 March 2016 (UTC)

This article is nearly incomprehensible. Just look at this passage: "The official list of 362 miners no longer obtains. At this point, it becomes 361, if Louis Patch is removed from the list, a man who lived and married a year after the explosion." What does this mean when it says that a list of casualties "no longer obtains"? "At this point..." At WHAT point? The narrative, especially in the Rescue Attempts section, is so jumbled and poorly written that it needs to be completely redone for clarity and grammar.

References

Victims

Are Negros not Americans then? Skinsmoke (talk) 12:55, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I suspect this is the language used in the reports from the time. Presumably all those labeled as "Negro" are actually Americans. I would like to see this specified as being the historical accounting and not a modern one if that's the case, but I don't know enough about this issue or the source material to make properly encyclopedic changes. Miketsu (talk) 05:40, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Weren't they all Americans ? That is, the Polish, Greek, Irish, etc were probably all Americans as well as the Blacks. This appears to be an attempt to break down the numbers by ethnic origin but the use of the term "American" is confusing. I think by "American" they meant White. Ronald Joe Record (talk) 20:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

List of victims

I'm not sure this list of victims is in keeping with Wikipedia's standards. First of all, the article says that the victim count was inaccurate. Secondly, it's just a list of names with otherwise no encyclopedic value at all; one doesn't learn anything from knowing that someone named "Jno. Majeska, Jr" was one of the victims labelled "Polish". I rather agree with the philosophy expressed in Wikipedia:Victim Lists. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 04:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. I'm going to be bold and remove it. Hoof Hearted (talk) 19:58, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

For corrections on Monongah's very poor history, including number of miners, widows and children, see: West Virginia History, Fall, 2013 pp. 63-92. Joseph L. Tropea

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Adding New Sections

What would be some good sections to add to this article to further understand it even more.--Lrr00006 (talk) 19:40, 23 February 2021 (UTC) Here is my bibliography on this article. If you could look at it and give me some feedback that would be great. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lrr00006/Monongah_Mine_Disaster/Bibliography --Lrr00006 (talk) 14:28, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

What company operated the mine?

No information at all in the article about the company responsible for this disaster. 173.71.191.229 (talk) 02:21, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

Sources point to it being the Fairmont Coal Company. I'm sure the book that most of this article is drawing from has more info but I can't find a copy since the e-book site it was linked to isn't working anymore. Reconrabbit 03:48, 31 December 2023 (UTC)