December 19, 1907: The Darr Mine Disaster occurs in Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. With 239 deaths, it remains the worst coal mining disaster in the history of America's foremost coal mining State.
The mine was operated by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. It was located on the west side of the Youghlogheny River, and along the route of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. Most of the miners and other mine laborers lived in the nearby community of Jacobs Creek, and took a "sky ferry" (aerial tramway) across the river to the mine entrance.
Many of the workers were immigrants from central Europe, particularly from the eastern part of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Hungarians, Slovaks and Rusyns. Others were Germans, Poles and Italians.
An inquiry carried out after the disaster determined that the blast was the result of miners carrying open lamps in an area cordoned off the previous day by the fire boss. The Pittsburgh Coal Company was not held responsible, but did abandon the use of open lamps after the disaster.
The Darr Mine blast was the 4th major mine disaster in December 1907, which would become the deadliest mine fatality month in U.S. history. It followed the Yolande mine explosion in Alabama on December 16, the Monongah Mining disaster in West Virginia that killed 362 on December 6, and the Naomi Mine explosion in Pennsylvania that killed 35 people on December 1.
The Darr Mine was abandoned, and is now overgrown with forest.
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December 19, 1907 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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