Sonman Mine explosion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

The Sonman Mine Explosion occurred on July 15, 1940, at the Sonman Shaft Coal Co. near Portage, Pennsylvania, in the United States. 63 miners died out of the estimated 90 trapped in the mine after the initial explosion. The explosion was centered in a section of the slope called the Right No. 16 heading. The rescue effort was hampered by the deadly gas which was presumed to have filled the chamber.

In 1960, a memorial to the miners who died in the explosion, originally located in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, was relocated to the Crichton-McCormick Park in Portage. The Portage Station Museum offers a documentary about the disaster titled "63 Men Down: The Story of the Sonman Mine Explosion" along with coal mine and railroad artifacts and exhibits.