Peggy, you did it again. Great information. I was wondering if you have any information on the mine explosion at Amonate in about 1957/8? I was working for the Maytag Place in Richlands at the time and I had a call to go repair a refrigeration unit in the War, WV Company Store. It was early one morning before day break and I had to drive through Amonate. As I passed the road leading up to the mine, I saw this bonfire built in a barrel and all these people were standing around it in the forks of the road. I will never forget the sight of the expressions of those people's face. I am a photographer and sometimes artist and the picture of this scene in my memory still haunts me. I just wish I had the ability to accurately reproduce it with the feeling those people must have possessed that morning. I had no idea what the problem was but knew it was grave. I stopped at a little store/restaurant just outside Amonate and there was a lot of cars and activity there. I went in for a cup of coffee and this man in a suit, a reporter, was talking to a miner. The miner said that "my buddy, standing next to me was blown in two". He then broke down completely and said that he had nothing else to say. I then found out that there had been an explosion and that person talking had been standing just around a corner but his buddy was caught the blast. The anguish those people were going through matches any thing I have seen during two tours of service in Viet Nam. I have researched the coal mines and mine disaster sites and can not find out anything on that explosion. The best of my memory, which isn't much any more, has it that about 27 died. And I believe there was a song produced about it. Coal mining in that part of SW VA is so much a part of our history. I have a friend that sent me a video that he had taken throughout McDowell County that vividly illustrates the deplorable condition of that area appropriately titled, "After The Coal Mines Closed". It is good to see that the movie "October Sky" just out is doing wonders to revive interest in that area. The producers had a special preview of the film for people of McDowell County which had to be shown in Bluefield, WV because McDowell County has no theaters. This area was all SW VA until the late 1800s and is very much a part of our heritage. Robert Crabtree