1959 — Jan 22, Susquehanna Riv. breaks into River Slope Mine/Knox Coal Co., Port Griffith, PA–12

— 13 Wikipedia. “Knox Mine Disaster.”
— 12 AP. “Flood Waters Prevent Pittston Mine Rescue.” Lock Haven Express, PA. 1-23-1959, 1.
— 12 Mine Safety and Health Admin. Historical Coal Mine Disasters in the Anthracite Region.
— 12 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC. Mining Disasters. 2010.
— 12 NEPA.Railfan.Net. Plymouth Miners Memorial. (Inscription on the Memorial).
— 12 Pencek. “The End of a Way of Life,” The Times Leader (Northeast PA), 1998
— 12 Rachunis and Fortney (U.S. Bureau of Mines), 1959, p. 1.
— 12 Wick (Luzerne County Historical Society). Images of America: Luzerne County. 2011, 85.
— 12 Wolensky, Wolensky, Wolensky. The Knox Mine Disaster, January 22, 1959… 1999, p28.

Narrative Information

Rachunis and Fortney (U.S. Bureau of Mines): “The Susquehanna River broke into the River Slope area …at 11:42 a.m., Thursday, January 22, 1959 entombing 12 men… A total of 82 men were in the mine at the time of the river break-in, of whom 38 escaped unassisted and 32 were rescued.” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, p. 1.)

“Mining had been conducted “90 feet beyond a safety stop line, and within 70 feet of borehole No. 1146 where core drillings indicated the rock strata to be only 19 inches in thickness between the river bed and the Pittston vein…The break-in was caused by mining in an area beyond the safety stop-line beneath the river where the thin rock strata was insufficient to support the weight of the ice-laden river.” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, p. 1.)

“A mine rescue team was not maintained at the mine…” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, p. 6.)

“At approximately 2:45 p.m., an observer came running over the hill adjacent to River Slope shouting that some of the missing workmen were at the bottom of the abandoned Eagle air shaft. One workman, Amedeo Pancotti…had climbed unassisted up the 60-foot-deep shaft.” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, 8) Thirty-two miners were shortly thereafter rescued from this shaft.

Pencek: “It was soon clear that the river had filled the mine. Some said all the miners had been rescued, but when families went to the Pittston Hospital, where the miners were taken they found two lists — those who escaped and those who were missing. (Pencek 1998)

Rachunis and Fortney: “The main opening of the break-in was plugged with railroad gondolas, mine cars, and other various materials through the combined efforts of the officials and workmen of numerous coal companies and contracting firms…on January 25, 1959.” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, p. 7.)

Pencek: “Two days after the disaster, a five-man team of civilian deep-sea divers arrived. On Jan. 26, efforts began to pump millions of gallons of water from the mine, although it was suspected the 12 missing men were not alive. On Jan. 31, pumping operations stopped as a huge cave developed near the Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks which were a short distance away from the river.” (Pencek 1998)

Rachunis and Fortney: After sufficient de-watering, “Searches were made in accessible openings of the affected areas, however, no trace was found of the bodies of the 12 victims.” (Rachunis and Fortney 1959, 13)

Pencek: “More pumps were delivered to the scene, but attempts were halted for good on July 24. (Pencek 1998)

Dublin and Licht: By this time not only had the Knox Mine been dealt a fatal blow, but in that the flooding eventually extended to all the interconnecting mines of the Wyoming Valley, this disaster “proved the final blow that led to the end of all underground mining in this portion of the northern anthracite field.” (Dublin and Licht, 2006, p. 111)

“In March of that year, the Port Griffith Disaster Fund Committee awarded $500 dollars to each family of the 12 victims. (Pencek 1998) Being granted a survivor ‘award’ was one thing –receiving it was another. As Dublin and Licht write, there was an Anthracite Health and Welfare Fund with provisions for dependents of those killed in mining accidents as well as for a pension for Pennsylvania miners. However,

The segmentation of the two funds coupled with anthracite’s steep decline in the 1950s and 1960s meant that anthracite miners and retirees saw their benefits slip away over the course of two decades. Pension benefits declined from $100 a month in 1949 to $30 in 1961; death benefits for widows and family members of anthracite mineworkers were cut from $1,000 to $500 and then suspended for four years’ time beginning in February 1958…..

The Fund and the union certainly did not look good in the eyes of members, retirees, and their families, when a local newspaper reported that the twelve widows of miners killed in the 1959 Knox Mine disaster had still not received death benefits three years after the catastrophe. (Dublin and Licht 2006, 102-103)

“Investigations and lawsuits soon followed. On May 11 warrants were issued for seven mine officials who were charged with violations of the Anthracite Mine Act. In September, the Luzerne County Grand Jury indicted seven for involuntary manslaughter. Three of them were charged with conspiracy. The few convictions, however, were overturned on appeal.” (Pencek 1998.)

“Ten people, including the mine superintendent and August J. Lippi, the president of District 1 of the United Mine Workers, were indicted for on a variety of charges, but only 3 (including Lippi) served jail time.” (Wikipedia. Knox Mine Disaster)

Dublin and Licht: “As in all mine disasters, human error played a role in the tragedy, but in this case subsequent investigation revealed the venality and systematic corruption of local mine officials, union officers, and UMWA district officers as root causes. A series of hearings and investigations revealed layers of responsibility. First there was the misconduct of officials of the Knox Coal Company, lessees of the mine, who willfully disregarded state regulations that prohibited mining within thirty-five feet underneath a waterway. Next, an inspector for the Pennsylvania Coal Company, the firm that leased the mine, had discovered the violations, but his superiors had not acted to halt the illegal mining. Moreover, the laxity of state mining inspectors permitted this illegal mining to continue until the State Department of Mines ordered the operation closed on January 13, 1959. Yet the mining still went on nine days later when the Susquehanna River broke through.

“The UMWA, too, bore a large share of responsibility for the disaster. Trial evidence showed that officers of the UMWA local at the Knox Mine and Lippi, the District 1 president, had taken bribes from company officials. Ultimately nine District officials were indicted, and seven convicted for criminal activity. These bribes had insulated the company from union claims regarding the safety of mining operations that might otherwise have served as a brake on its illegal mining. Lippi’s involvement went even deeper than bribery; an investigation uncovered that he was one of the owners of the Knox Coal Company, in clear violation of the Taft-Hartley Act. While never convicted for the ownership per se, Lippi was found guilty of corporate and personal tax evasion for failing to report and pay taxes on his income as an owner of the firm….After a string of unsuccessful appeals, Lippi entered federal prison in November 1965.” (Dublin and Licht, 2006, pp. 111-112.)

Wick: “The Susquehanna River flooded into the Slope Mine owned by the Knox Coal Company in January 22, 1959. The mining operation dug too close to the riverbed at Port Griffith in Jenkins Township….The bodies of Samuel Altieri, John Baloga, Benjamin Boyer, Francis Burns, Charles Featherman, Gizenski, Dominick Kaveliskie, Eugene Ostroski, Frank Orlowski, William Sinclair, Daniel Stefanides, and Herman Zelonis were never recovered.” (Wick (Luzerne County Historical Society). Images of America: Luzerne County. 2011, p. 85.)

Sources

Associated Press. “Flood Waters Prevent Pittston Mine Rescue.” Lock Haven Express, PA. 1-23-1959, p. 1. Accessed 12-15-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/lock-haven-express-jan-23-1959-p-1/

Dublin, Thomas and Walter Licht. The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century. Cornell University Press, 2005, 312 pages. Google preview accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=uOOLKTbpYzkC&pg=PA219&dq=Trachtenberg.++History+of+Legislation+for+the+Protection+of+Coal+Miners+in+PA.++1942&ei=8rZfSfHfEYLeyASghtXDAw#PPP1,M1

Mine Safety and Health Administration. Historical Coal Mine Disasters in the Anthracite Region (District 1 – Coal Mine Safety and Health). Arlington, VA: MSHA, U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed 1-3-2009 at: http://www.msha.gov/District/Dist_01/Fatals/HISTFAT.HTM

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Mining Safety and Health Research.. Mining Disasters (Incidents with 5 or more Fatalities). NIOSH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2-26-2013 update. Accessed at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/disall.htm
and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/statistics/content/allminingdisasters.html

NEPA.railfan.net. Plymouth Miners Memorial. (Inscription on the Memorial). Accessed 4-8-2010 at: http://nepa.railfan.net/breakers/pmm.php

Pencek, David. “The End of a Way of Life,” The Times Leader (Northeast PA), 1998. Accessed at: http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/mines/knox.htm

Rachunis, William and Gerald W. Fortney. Report of Major Mine Inundation Disaster, River Slope Mine, May Shaft Section, Schooley Colliery, Knox Coal Company, Incorporated, Port Griffith, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre, PA: District A, Bureau of Mines, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Jan 22, 1959. At: http://www.msha.gov/District/Dist_01/Reports/Knox/cover.htm

Wick, Harrison (for the Luzerne County Historical Society). Images of America: Luzerne County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2011. Partially digitized by Google at: http://books.google.com/books?id=gYPlqdCp2nEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Wikipedia. “Knox Mine Disaster.” Accessed 1-3-2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Mine_Disaster

Wolensky, Robert P. Kenneth C. Wolensky and Nicole H. Wolensky. The Knox Mine Disaster, January 22, 1959: The Final Years of the Northern Anthracite Industry and the Effort to Rebuild a Regional Economy. Commonwealth of PA: PA Historical and Museum Commission, 1999.