Coal deaths at record low in 2014

There were a record-low 16 coal mining deaths in 2014, four fewer than in 2013. Part of the reason is that there are fewer miners – down 8,000 from 2011.

The United Mine Workers Union, run by the legendary John L. Lewis, once had 800,000 members. Today there are 20,000 coal miners who belong to the UMW.

The previous coal mining all-time low was in 2009, with 18 deaths.

In 1907, the year of the Monongah mines explosions that killed 362 (official) to 500+ (Father Briggs & gravediggers’ estimates), more than 3,000 miners died.

Today West Virginia is second only to Wyoming in coal mining production.

The first commercial coal mining in America was in Midlothian, Virginia in the 1730s.