Historic Knoxville News #3: the Fraterville mine disaster

The third episode in our podcast series based on readings of old Knoxville newspapers is about the catastrophic explosion of Fraterville mine in Coal Creek, TN (now Lake City) which killed 184 men and boys. Robby Griffith and Craig Smith read the May 20, 1902 front-page coverage, and Derek Washington sings a song based on some letters written by miners trapped without hope of rescue. Steve Cotham discusses the importance and dangers of coal mining.

You can download the recording here or subscribe for free to get new episodes automatically downloaded so you can listen whenever and wherever you want.

Resources: Here's a list of the major mining disasters since 1900 (you may be asked to enter your library card number for access). Steve mentions a related poem or song in the historic documents of the McClung Collection, and Melissa recommends the book Circling Windrock Mountain. You can also read the transcript of the newspaper articles (as arranged for recording).

Knox County Public Library Podcasts by Knox County Public Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. © 2008 Some Rights Reserved.