Additional Assignments
- Using the primary sources as your point of departure, write an account of a mine disaster from one of the following perspectives:
- A coal company executive
- A worker from another mine participating in the effort to rescue disaster survivors and recover the bodies of the dead
- A child in Denver whose chores include stoking the family’s furnace with coal
- A woman whose husband and sons were working underground at the time of the explosion
- An organizer sent to Colorado by the UMWA to drum up support for unionization
- An immigrant to Colorado from Great Britain or Germany who is curious about why American coal mines had much higher fatality rates than those in her or his homeland
- A priest or minister who feels compelled to address the recent mine explosions in a sermon to a congregation composed largely of coal miners and their families
- A progressive politician intent on instituting reforms that might prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future
- Coal-mine disasters continue to afflict mine workers and mining communities across the world. Indeed, since the 2000s, coal mines in China, West Virginia, India, the Ukraine, and Utah have all suffered from explosions, cave-ins, fires, and other calamities. Use online news coverage, YouTube, or other sources to create a PowerPoint presentation or online presentation in which you compare and contrast journalistic accounts of recent disasters with coverage of Colorado’s 1910 mine explosions.