When The Earth Gets Restless, Miners Die

[REP]

In 1958, there was a mining "bump" disaster at the Cumberland Mine in Springhill, Nova Scotia, similar in some ways to the disaster in Utah - including retreat mining, the intense media coverage and miners of currently unpopular ethnicities (Black in Nova Scotia; Hispanic in Utah). After some truly heroic work by rescue workers, most of the miners were recovered alive after seven days, but many lost their lives. The mine was shut down afterward because it was just too dangerous

I know about the Springhill disaster of 1958 - and I was born in 1964. I don't know shit about mining other than it's dangerous, and that this kind of mining is especially dangerous ... doesn't it seem as though maybe someone who does know shit about mining should have been doing something about this kind of mine?

And how many more lives - 3 tonight, probably six in the ground - are going to be thrown away in this mine?

In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia
Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine
When the earth gets restless, miners die
Blood and bone is the price of coal
Blood and bone is the price of coal

Down at the coal face the miners working
Rattle of the belt and the cutters blade
Rumble of rock and the walls close round
The living and the dead men two miles down
The living and the dead men two miles down

Twelve men lie two miles from the pit shaft
Twelve men lie in the dark and sang
Long hot days in the miner's tomb
Three feet high and a hundred long,
three feet high and a hundred long

Eight days passed and the lamps gave out
One of the miners ups and says
"There's no more water or light or bread,
so we'll live on songs and hope instead,
we'll live on songs and hope instead"

Eight long days and some were rescued,
Leaving the dead to lie alone.
Through all their lives they dug their grave
Two miles of earth for a marking stone,
Two miles of earth for a marking stone.

(Peggy Seeger/Ewan MacColl)

[SoCalDem]

1. Hence, the word "undermine"..

Eventually the laws of physics catch up with miners..

a mountain, once undermined (actually overmined) will once and for all, fill its voids by collapsing in on itself, no matter who or what is still inside it.

Gravity & greed have more to do with it than anything else.

[REP]

4. From One On-Line Reference About Springhill:

"In the case of the No. 2 colliery, the mining techniques were changed 20 years before this disaster, from "room and pillar" to "long wall retreating" after reports documenting the increased danger of "bump" phenomena in the use of the former technique."

Isn't the Utah mine a "room and pillar"?

So ... for at least 78 years, "room and pillar" mining has been known to increase "bumps." No wonder the owner is claiming the seismic activity was due to an earthquake, not a mining bump.

[Lasher]

2. I used to play that one

The lyrics were a little different though. More like the Peggy Seeger version.

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/txt/1386.txt

[REP]

3. I Believe That Is The Seeger Version

At least, it's the one I know, and it was written by MacColl and Seeger (and later performed by Peter, Paul and Mary).

[Lasher]

5. Yep, I woulda picked it up from PP&M.

My dad liked for me to play that one for him. Lots of coal mining around here.