Signs at the entrance to a mine at the Dawson Daylight Coal Company, Hopkins County. C. Frank Dunn Collection. KHS Collections.
On December 26, 1945, an explosion at the Straight Creek Coal Mine in Bell County killed more than twenty workers and buried their bodies deep inside the mine. “Due to lack of funds and proper equipment,” private attempts to recover the bodies were unsuccessful. Noting that this situation was a “reflection upon the good name and credit of the Commonwealth,” the Kentucky General Assembly by an act approved March 25, 1948, appropriated money to pay for recovery.
Signs at the entrance to a mine at the Dawson Daylight Coal Company, Hopkins County. C. Frank Dunn Collection. KHS Collections.
