THE HAWK'S NEST TUNNEL DISASTER
Episode 202 | Historical Events
In this History episode we focus on the Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster — the deadliest industrial catastrophe in American history that most people have never heard of. In 1930, Union Carbide drilled a three-mile tunnel through Gauley Mountain in West Virginia using thousands of workers, most of them Black migrants from the South. The mountain was made of almost pure silica. The company knew. They drilled anyway, without dust controls, without ventilation, without masks.
Between 476 and 764 workers died of acute silicosis within five years of the tunnel's…
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