# West Virginia mine fatalities **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2007, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813 "2007-12-21T07:16:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/1 "2007-12-21T07:16:51Z")
While looking in a five year old issue of Sports Illustrated, it claimed more people have been killed in mine accidents in West Virginia than in all our country’s wars combined. Since the number of American war fatalities is usually given as about one million, that seems exaggerated. Is this true? Where did this number come from? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/2 "2007-12-21T07:25:31Z")
Nationwide, 127,000 Americans have died in coal mining disasters according to [http://www.geocities.com/coalminermem/](http://www.geocities.com/coalminermem/) That’s more than I would have guessed, but nowhwere near the number of US combat deaths of WWII alone. For estimates of deaths in various wars, see [United States military casualties of war - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_casualties_of_war) ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/3 "2007-12-21T07:25:45Z")
Seems highly improbable, especially if [this site](http://www.wvminesafety.org/disaster.htm) is to be believed and your figure of 1 million US war dead is approximately correct. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/4 "2007-12-21T07:27:30Z")
[QUOTE=installLSC] While looking in a five year old issue of Sports Illustrated, it claimed more people have been killed in mine accidents in West Virginia than in all our country’s wars combined. Since the number of American war fatalities is usually given as about one million, that seems exaggerated. Is this true? Where did this number come from? [/QUOTE] I have no idea where that number came from, but the single highest fatality count from a coal mine accident in West Virginia in recorded U.S. history is 362 and that occurred in Monongah, West Virginia in 1907. [http://www.msha.gov/mshainfo/factsheets/mshafct8.htm](http://www.msha.gov/mshainfo/factsheets/mshafct8.htm) Remember that there are coal mines in many other states as well. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/5 "2007-12-21T07:29:32Z")
[QUOTE=PaulParkhead] Seems highly improbable, especially if [this site](http://www.wvminesafety.org/disaster.htm) is to be believed and your figure of 1 million US war dead is approximately correct. [/QUOTE] I haven’t added up all those numbers, but they look way short of one million. And now I see that PaulParkhead were in agreement ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/6 "2007-12-21T07:37:15Z")
On review, I see the OP said mine accidents, not specifically coal mine accidents. Offhand, I can’t think of any other type of mining in WV that would significantly increase the total. If the article meant all mining-related deaths, then they’re at least a little closer. According to [http://www.co.greene.pa.us/secured/gc/services/miners.htm](http://www.co.greene.pa.us/secured/gc/services/miners.htm) 100,000 miners have died of black lung nationwide. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/7 "2007-12-21T14:26:35Z")
Maybe the article meant to say that more West Virginians had died in mining accidents than had died in combat. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/8 "2007-12-21T15:07:49Z")
Maybe they’re including canaries? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/9 "2007-12-21T23:53:01Z")
[QUOTE=Meurglys] Maybe the article meant to say that more West Virginians had died in mining accidents than had died in combat. [/QUOTE] I grew up in West Virginia schools, and this is exactly what I was taught. More WEST VIRGINIANS have died in mine accidents than have WEST VIRGINIANS who died in combat in all of the U.S. wars.. Whether that is true or not, it was repeated in school… ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/west-virginia-mine-fatalities/430813/10 "2007-12-22T09:45:32Z")
Uh, like, why is Sports Illustrated covering mining disasters?