The small coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia, is marking the 50th anniversary of one of Canada’s worst mine disasters. On October 23, 1958, a “bump” caused the #2 mine shaft to collapse and instantly kill 73 men. In total, 174 were trapped underground. After rescure efforts were finished it was determined that 75 died and 100 more were injured.

My mother sent me a link to a video from the Canadian Press. The miner interviewed is Herb Pepperdine, my uncle. He was trapped with 7 other men over a mile below the surface for 9 days. They were the last to be found alive. There isn’t enough money in the world to make me want to do that job.

Jobs like that make my stomache hurt just thinking about them…

Don’t even get me started on the whole ‘being trapped underground with
tons of cold, dark earth and rock above my head’ thing!

DavePrime - 09 November 2008 04:33 PM

Jobs like that make my stomache hurt just thinking about them…

My thoughts exactly.

Another one of my uncles was hired on by the mine 2 years previous to this incident. He was anxious to finally have his chance to make “the big money”. Two days before he was to start, a runaway coal car severed an electrical line creating an arc that ignited coal dust causing a huge explosion. I think 40 men died in that one. The following day he joined the Army.

Nova Scotia is also where one of the largest (if not the largest) accidental man-made explosions took place.  Lots of fun-filled claims to fame for a relatively small area.

Around here, sub-surface mining is one of the major industries.  There are constantly little accidents happening that don’t make it into the news.  It never struck me as one of the more pleasant and happy jobs.

Yeah.. Mining is one of the most *lethal* jobs. You’re more likely to get seriously injured working in the meat-processing industry, but they often refer to it as ‘man a mile’.. for every mile dug, you’re going to lose a miner.

I’ve been in caves before, and frankly, there’s not much as would persuade me to go further down.

Robin Bobcat - 09 November 2008 10:08 PM

I’ve been in caves before, and frankly, there’s not much as would persuade me to go further down.

The chance to see a balrog?

Oops! I didn’t realize the link to video in my original post was not working. I’ve fixed it now.

Robin Bobcat - 09 November 2008 10:08 PM

...but they often refer to it as ‘man a mile’.. for every mile dug, you’re going to lose a miner.

If only that were true. At this mine 74 men were killed in the 1958 disaster. The 1956 explosion killed 49 and a fire in 1891 killed 125. That’s a total of 238 men in a span of 67 years in a town with a population of 3900 (2006). I’m not sure how many miles were dug but I’m sure it’s a lot less than 238. It would be interesting to find for sure. I’ll have to check on that. Uncle Herb might know.

I worked in a mine for a year when I was young.  I can honestly say that I loved every minute of it.  Admittedly it wasn’t a coal mine but it was underground.  I worked anywhere from 1200 to 4800 ft down.  I could sit there at lunch and turn my headlamp off and everything would be perfectly still with the only noise being dripping water somewhere.  It was pretty hard work but a lot of fun.  I saw a lot of people who had claustrophobia try it and I can say that it isn’t for someone like that.  The thought of all the rock above me never even entered my mind when I was working there.  If they hadn’t gone on strike I probably would have stayed around. 

It’s a pretty dirty job and physically tough but it pays well.  And the stuff you find in the rock after a blast is interesting.  i used to be able to pick up raw garnets from pockets in the rock that were opened up after a blast.  I didn’t find it any more dangerous than any other job I have been at.  Hard rock mines are safer though.  We didn’t have to worry about coal dust and the chance of an explosion was pretty minimal.  I am not sure I would have wanted to work digging coal.