The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large scale incident of occupational lung disease as a result of the construction of a tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia as part of a hydroelectric project. We came upon this while exploring the New River Gorge national park. It is considered one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. In 1930-1931 some 476-1,000 workers, primarily migrant black laborers, died of silicosis while tunneling through the mountain. The tunnel cut through almost pure silica. The Memorial is located near Summersville Lake by route 19 near Martha White's farm where many of the black miners were taken surrepticiously at night and buried, since they were not allowed to be buried in white cemeteries. Later these graves had to be moved when US Route 19 was widened. The remains were disinterred in 1972 by the Department of Highways and moved to the present site. The decomposed remains were placed in child size coffins and reburied here resulting in about 48 small graves.The memorial went unmarked for 40 years. The location was rediscovered by a West Virginia State University professor after a local couple spearheaded an effort to create a memorial in 2009. The Memorial was dedicated September 7, 2012. I wonder if this history is taught, even in local schools? Do school children visit the Memorial? We were there twice, since the light on our first visit was not good for photography. We were the only ones at the site. Cultural references to the tragedy include Muriel Rukeyser's poetry, "The Book of the Dead" (1938); Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's book "Trust Us, We're Experts" in a section entitled "Dying for a Living: The Hawk's Nest Incident"; gretchen Moran Laskas's young adult fiction "The Miner's Daughter"; and several other novels as well as Josh White's song "Silicosis Is Killing Me."
