Fraterville Mine Explosion

Fraterville headline

"Entrance to Fraterville mine
through which over 200 men and boys
passed last Monday morning in good health and spirits
to be brought out mangled corpses."

Journal and Tribune, May 23, 1902

Newspaper Microfilm

Fraterville Mine Explosion, Campbell County, Tennessee, May 19, 1902
The Fraterville Mine disaster on May 19, 1902, was the worst mining disaster in Tennessee history, killing 216 miners. Miners investigating a collapsed wall ignited a pocket of methane gas and caused an explosion. Debris and black smoke blasted out of the mine, and attempts at rescue using an improvised ventilation system failed to recover any survivors. Most of the miners were killed in the initial explosion, but 26 barricaded themselves into a passage and eventually suffocated hours later. Knowing there was no hope for rescue, they wrote notes to their loved ones on the walls. The town of Fraterville was devastated by the loss: all but three of the town’s men were killed. Both the ventilation furnace operator and the superintendent were charged with negligence leading to the explosion, but both were acquitted. The Fraterville mine had been widely recognized as one of the safest mines in the region before the explosion.


Knoxville Sentinel, May 19, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm	Knoxville Sentinel, May 21, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm

Journal and Tribune, May 22, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm	Journal and Tribune, May 23, 1902; Newspaper Microfilm

"160 to 300 Miners Are Entombed; Mine Believed to Be Burning" Knoxville Sentinel, May 19, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm	"Six Letters Written in Chamber of Death" Knoxville Sentinel, May 21, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm

"Coffins Containing Dead Miners W. R. Queener, a Miner, is Shown in Foreground, Wearing Miner's Lamp. He Had Been at Work in Mines Thirty-Six Hours and Was Only Brought Out by Force, so Intense Was His Desire to Recover the Dead" Knoxville Sentinel, May 21, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm	"Loading Dead Bodies at Mines Fraterville and Thistle Mines are Located in the Mountain in the Background." Knoxville Sentinel, May 21, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm

"Entrance to Thistle Mine This is the Entry Through Which the Rescuing Parties Entered and From Which Dead Bodies are Being Removed." Knoxville Sentinel, May 21, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm	"This picture shows the entrance to Thistle mine, out of which all bodies have been brought, and also the mine building in which the bodies were taken when brought from the mine. The men around the embankment are friends and relatives awaiting the removal of the bodies. The man whose back is marked with an X is one of the leaders of the rescue party and is now getting his men ready to go into the mine again." Journal and Tribune, May 22, 1902 Newspaper Microfilm

United Mine Workers of America program commemorating the Fraterville mine explosion, 1911
RG 72, Department of Labor Records

Section researched and written by Kate Williams, Archival Assistant