Phil Primack, Photographer, Photographs of the Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster and Other Material
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4497
Digital copies of negatives (35 mm) and some prints of photographs shot by photographer Phil Primack, who at one time worked for the Mountain Eagle newspaper in Whitesburg, KY. Subjects include the Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster (1970), the Buffalo Creek flood disaster (1972), the Miners for Democracy convention in Wheeling, West Virginia (1972, undated), a UMWA rally on Labor Day (1972), a "Miners for Miller" event in Evarts, KY, and the UMWA 46th Constitutional Convention (1973), the first under the reform leadership of Arnold Miller.
No special access restriction applies.
Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster:
The Hurricane Creek mine disaster occurred on December 30, 1970, shortly after 12:00 p.m. and resulted in the deaths of 39 men. It occurred a year to the day after the passage of the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 as was frequently mentioned during coverage of the disaster. Recovery was complicated by the fact that a foot of snow fell on the mountain roads at the time of the accident. It was the deadliest United States mine disaster since the Farmington Mine disaster (1968) and is the subject of several songs.
That day, the 38 dayshift workers entered the 3 ft. tall mine shaft at 7:00 a.m. and crawled down to approximately 2,400 ft. The explosion occurred around five hours later (at about 12:10 p.m.). The bodies of victims were removed within a day, and the mine was sealed until investigation could begin. There were two survivors of the explosion: A.T. Collins, who was blown out of the mine by the explosion while reentering the mine shaft after a lunch break, and Harrison Henson, who had been sent outside to get tools. Henson had turned around to return to the shaft when the mine exploded. Collins was one of three miners who testified that he had seen primer cord (an illegal fuse) at the mine site before the explosion.
(Adapted from Hurricane Creek mine disaster. (2021, January 02). Retrieved February 01, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Creek_mine_disaster)
Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster:
The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred on February 26, 1972, when the Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3 (located on a hillside in Logan County, West Virginia) burst four days after having been declared "satisfactory" by a federal mine inspector. Dam #3, constructed of coal slurry sediment that had collected behind dams #1 and #2 dumped into the Middle Fork of Buffalo Creek starting in 1968, failed first following heavy rains. The water from dam #3 then overwhelmed dams #2 and #1. Dam #3 was approximately 260 feet above the town of Saunders when it failed.
The resulting flood unleashed around 132 million gallons of black wastewater (cresting over 30 ft. high) upon the residents of sixteen coal towns along Buffalo Creek Hollow. As a result, 125 people were killed, 1,121 were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless of a population of 5,000. 551 homes and 30 businesses were destroyed. The disaster destroyed or damaged homes in several towns, including Saunders, Pardee, Lorado, Craneco, Lundale, Stowe, Crites, Latrobe, Robinette, Amherstdale, and others.
(Adapted from Buffalo Creek flood. (2020, December 18). Retrieved February 01, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_flood)
1.33 Gigabytes (492 files, formats include .tif and .docx)
English
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
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