1968 Farmington Mine Disaster

INTRODUCTION

The morning of November 20, 1968, started with a phone call around 6:30 a.m. at the Campione household. Sarah Campione answered the phone and was asked by the editor of the Fairmont Times, Bill Evans, if she would get her son Bob to come to the phone. Bob Campione, age 20, had been the photographer for the Times during high school and college up until his final semester, but he had to resign his full-time position while taking education classes at Fairmont State College that semester. The young photographer came to the phone, and Evans explained that there had been an explosion at the Farmington No. 9 mine and was requesting he come pick him up and go with him to photograph the incident. Campione requested he call his replacement because of his class schedule, but Evans insisted he needed him to go because of his experience and the magnitude of the situation. At this time, Campione was not officially employed by the newspaper; he was considered to be a freelance photographer and would be paid for any photographs used in publication.

The young photographer dressed and picked up Evans at his home on the other side of town, and the two traveled to the mine. It was a cool November morning, and as they approached the small rural town of Farmington, it was apparent by the dark haze in the sky something evil had happened. They had to drive through the small community of Farmington on their way to meet up with federal and state mine inspectors at the mine’s main tipple. The tipple was located a few miles north of the small community, and during that short drive to the tipple, no words were spoken in the car. The uncertainty of what was around the next turn caused one’s mind to speculate various scenarios of what might be encountered.

As they rounded the final turn with the Farmington No. 9 (Consolidation Coal Company, also known as Consol) in sight, nothing seemed to be amiss here, to their surprise. As they pulled into the parking lot of the Champion company store, directly across the road from the main tipple, there were already several other cars in the lot. Some of them had federal license plates, and others had official state tags. When Campione and Evans got out of the vehicle, they were greeted by a couple of the men dressed in mining clothes. These were the federal mine inspectors that had called Bill Evans in the early hours of the morning to inform him of the incident. Evans had become somewhat of an authority in covering mining accidents and explosions, so the inspectors knew he would be able to report clearly and factually the events about to unfold.

After a briefing from the mining inspectors, Campione got back in his car and began the drive to the Llewellyn portal. The drive seemed to take forever as thoughts raced through his mind. He could see in the distance a black column of smoke and continued his drive in that direction. As he went up the small, twisting country road, the column of smoke became more intense, and rounding the final curve, he saw the smoke-engulfed elevator structure and bathhouse where the miners would dress for work and shower after work before going home. Getting out of his car, Campione could smell the pungent odors being produced from the fire deep underground. He recognized the man trip elevator structure because as a small child he would go with his father, a coal miner, to the Grant Town mine where his father worked, to pick up his paycheck.

Climbing up a small embankment across the road from the structure, Campione leaned against a large oak tree and collected his thoughts. Checking the settings on his camera and using the tree as a support, he shot his first picture of the day. While he was standing there and looking at all the cars in the parking lot, one vehicle caught his eye. He recognized the car belonging to a friend’s father. He had been in this car many times while riding to East Fairmont High School with him and his son. Suddenly, the magnitude of the situation took on a more personal impact.

As Campione was driving back to the main tipple to reconnect with Evans, his thoughts raced back to a time when he got to the newspaper office and Evans told him they needed to go report on a mine incident. Evans would not tell him which mine they were going to, but only to drive in the direction south of Fairmont. There were several mines in that direction Campione knew of, and as they approached Barrickville, Evans instructed him to turn in that direction. Making the turn toward Barrickville, Campione asked again which mine they were going to, and Evans finally told him it was Grant Town. That time of day, around 3:30 p.m., Campione’s dad would be in the mine. The trip to the bathhouse suddenly seemed like an eternity. Reaching the parking lot of the mine, the two men went into the area where the miners would enter the elevator leading into the mine. The young photographer knew to check the board near the entry to the elevator to see if his dad’s check tag was on the In side or the Out side of the