Growing up, 19-year-old Marley Brooks often heard the dark stories of mine rescues told by her grandfather, the Rev. Nick Brewer, a retired third-generation miner for Westmoreland Coal Company. But not until recently did she realize the importance of bringing those stories to light.
Brooks was one of several students at University of Virginia’s College at Wise who recently helped to organize a History Harvest on campus, an event that brought together 15 local coal miners who had their own stories to tell — stories of heroism but more often stories of heartbreak.
The service learning project was coordinated by the Center for Appalachian Studies and students in the college’s Introduction to Public History course, concentrating on the mine rescues from the Westmoreland Coal Company’s Stonega Division from 1976 to 1992.
During that span of time, the Westmoreland men who trained for the job worked five mine rescues, the first two of which were at Scotia Mines in Oven Fork, Kentucky where 26 miners were killed at twin explosions only two days apart in March 1976.
At the time, it was one of the worst mine disasters in U.S. history. The disaster led to the passage of the Federal Mine Safety & Health Act of 1977.
In addition to Scotia Mines, the five mine rescues took place at P&P Mine in St. Charles in 1977; Ferrell Mine in Boone County, West Virginia in 1980; and Southmountain Mine in Norton in 1992.
The five rescues resulted in locating a total of 43 bodies. Their rescue efforts were unsuccessful in all of them.
Brian McKnight, history professor and co-founder of the Center for Appalachian Studies on the campus, said the ongoing history project unfolded after he and associate history professor Jinny Turman had the opportunity to interview local workers of the Scotia Mines. “That’s when we began to look at this from an academic standpoint,” said McKnight, who, along with Turman, sponsored the History Harvest as a way for history students to engage with the retired miners and to collect important artifacts from them.
“At that time, I didn’t know much about the Scotia or the sacrifices these rescue men had made,” said McKnight. “These are some incredible stories. These men got dropped down a 500-foot hole to enter a mine disaster. They were working in a deadly environment, but yet they were willing to help.”
In a document about the history project, McKnight writes, “These [rescue] men suffered from what we now know as PTSD and lived in an era when people were not comfortable seeking mental health help.”
Turman was eager to jump on board with incorporating the History Harvest as a service learning component for the public history course she teaches at the college.
“When Brian and I did the first interviews with the rescue miners, absolutely nothing prepared me for the stories they shared. I could tell it was rewarding work for them, but very difficult. Their memories are still very raw.”
Turman stressed the importance of providing her students with experiential learning opportunities that help them become more connected with the community.
“History Harvests teach students the value of recording and preserving history that often goes overlooked by larger institutions,” said Turman. “Harvest events invite any willing participant to share their stories and memorabilia so that others can learn from those materials. Additionally, students learn how to be responsible for collecting and curating those digitized resources, making it available to larger audiences. These are skills that can potentially benefit them as they enter the workforce.” 
Personal accounts
The stories related by the rescue miners during the event were personal accounts of traumatic and heartbreaking experiences that took them thousands of feet underground.
Gerald Tate, 75, is one of the retired miners who attended the History Harvest.
“The History Harvest was a great event. It was good getting together and sharing with the other team members,” said Tate of Gate City. “I was impressed with the students. They were really interested in what happened years ago.”
The stories that live in his memories are still as real as the day they happened.
As part of the rescue team, Tate worked all five disasters that Westmoreland Mine Rescue responded to from 1976 to 1992. At the age of 27, the miner for Westmoreland Coal Company joined other team members on their first efforts to rescue miners at a disaster at Oven Fork, Kentucky.
“The first one at Scotia was the most traumatic. It was something we’d never done before. We didn’t know what to expect even though we trained a lot for it. We’d never been involved with the human part of it, and that was the toughest part,” Tate said.
Tate and other team members were not prepared for what they found after the explosion ripped through the mine, killing all of the miners. The pictures of death are still vivid in his mind.
The rescue team spent as many as fifteen hours underground during their first rescue trip reestablishing ventilation, clearing toxic gases, and putting out any fires.
“Our goal was to restore the conditions in the mine, making it safe for the next team of men to recover the bodies,” Tate said.
As Tate and the other rescue men reappeared from the drift mouth passage of the mine prepared to bear solemn news, they saw families waiting to hear about their loved ones.
“A little boy came running over to us wanting to know if we had seen his dad. You just never forget things like that.”
Other rescue members in attendance at the History Harvest included Matt Smith, J. R. Kimberlin, Allen Wolfe, and Bill Person, Cotton Gardner, Hughie Carter and Gary Whisman.
“By 1980, these Westmoreland guys were probably the most experienced mine rescue people in the world,” said McKnight. “Few people had worked four explosions in four years.”
One attendant at the History Harvest was Bill Person, an 89-year-old retired miner who suffers from black lung disease. “Just think, 50 years later, he got to see the other miners from the 1970s,” said McKnight.
Allen Wolfe worked the first mine rescue along with Tate. “He was one of the first men to sign up for it,” said McKnight. “I think it’s a testament to the selflessness of these rescuers. They didn’t get paid to do this. They did it because they hoped someone would do the same for them.”
The rescue team also watched some of their own men die in the rescues.
McKnight writes that John Hackworth, a young guy with a great personality, “had volunteered to go in with the inspectors and had died in the second explosion. It was most of these men’s first real experience with death and certainly their first experience with the carnage of fire and explosive force.”
McKnight related that Glen Bowen, a rescue miner, “was terrified to go back into Scotia for a second time and was convinced he was going to die that day. He didn’t, but 14 years later he became the first miner in Virginia to be killed by a remote controlled mining machine. He knew he was going to die in a coal mine, he just got the timing wrong.” 
Personal connections
For Brooks, a sophomore at the college, the History Harvest had a personal connection. One of the men who attended the event was Brooks’ grandfather, who holds a doctorate in theology, and is also a 1972 graduate of then-Clinch Valley College. Brewer was not part of the Mine Rescue program, but he served as an inspector for the Mine Safety and Health Administration at the time and worked closely with the men on the teams.
“I’m very honored to be working on this project,” said Brooks. “It’s eye-opening to hear their stories and know what they experienced. Despite that, they still came to work, did their jobs, and helped so many people. They’re not seeking fame or fortune. They just want to tell their stories. Several men grew in faith after the mining disasters.”
Chloe Weaver, also a sophomore at the college, is part of the project.
“I have been raised in the Appalachian region my entire life and hearing these men talk about rescuing people in accidents was huge. It’s something you don’t think about.”
Other students involved in the History Harvest include Cheyenne Riggins, Ben Adams, Mackenzie Jackson, Scott Sanders, Lamore Tucker, Alex Jones, Ben Kantor, Hunter Addington, Kevin Cheng, Yasmine Elhajjam and Zuhayr Khan.
Brooks will spend the summer transcribing the oral histories collected from the miners during the event as a way of honoring the men’s service to the community and making sure the lessons from mining history will be available for future generations.
The students also collected artifacts from the miners, including trade magazines, newspaper clipping and photographs that represent the era of the coal mining disasters.
“It’s a big passion for me,” said Brooks, who has loved history since she was a child. “I have an incredible passion for mining history because of my grandfather. It’s personal for me as well as academic. I’m learning a lot. The things these people went through are really incredible.”
The explosions at Scotia led to the passage of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, strengthening the previously passed 1969 act. The 1977 law also moved the Mine Safety and Health Administration from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Labor.
A historical marker in Letcher County honors the tragic mine explosions that occurred at Scotia Mine in 1976. 
Courtesy of UVA Wise.
