Download or read book Mining Disasters of the Wyoming Valley written by Bryan Glahn and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-22 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten-year-old Willie Hatton was excited to visit his father at the Avondale Mine on the morning of September 6, 1869. Sadly, Willie would die in his father’s arms that day, and so would 108 other miners, all victims of a horrific fire that tore through the shaft, trapping the men and boys and blocking the only exit. The communities of the Wyoming Valley know firsthand the human cost of the anthracite industry. From a cave-in at Twin Shaft to an explosion at the Baltimore Tunnel to the Susquehanna River crashing through the roof at Knox, thousands of miners left for work in the morning never to return. Sadly, few of the tragedies could be called accidents. Profits took precedence over safety, leaving workers to pay the price for negligence, corruption, and greed.