The Old Greeno
Mine
By Naomi Bond,
Betty Clowers, William Bond and Peggy Sturgill
From The
Heritage of Wise County and The City of Norton - Volume I
The Greeno Mine is located east of
Tacoma, VA on State Highway Alternate 58. It was at one time part of the Pat
Hagan estate. The Raven Seam dips inward approximately 10 per cent until it
reaches the top of Guest Mountain. Then the seam levels off and has a dip of
approximately 4 per cent. It has also been called The Greeno Slope and it is
the largest block of Raven coal left in southwestern Virginia and runs from
Tacoma to Norton and back to Coeburn. The Raven mine could be driven for
approximately 22 miles to the limits of the Pine Mountain fault at Pound, VA.
In 1910, the company operating the
mine was known as Bond Coal Company. Mr. R. P. Bruce, an attorney of Wise, VA
was president and Judge W. H. Bond, also of Wise, VA was Secretary and
Treasurer. The Raven seam was called the Imboden seam at that time.
On March 16, 1907 there was an
explosion at this mine at which time 6 men were killed. Four men survived the
explosion and walked out of the mine. There was also a small ignition of gas
about 6 months previous to the explosion in 1910 but no fatalities resulted
although it was reported that several men were slightly burned.
On December 14, 1910 at 9:10 a.m.
the weather was quite cold and several inches of snow lay on the ground about
the mouth of the slope. A strong current of cold air was entering the slope
which was the intake and several inches of ice covered the floor of the slope
in places. Pat Ramsey, later a member of the rescue party, was standing at the
door of the blacksmith shop about 60 feet east of the mouth of the slope and
directly at right angles to it. He stated that he heard a dull report and ran
at once toward the slope mouth, but before he reached that point, a second
report occurred. A rescue party was formed and went into the mine at 10:30 a.m.
Several men from Clinchfield Corporation Mines at Dante, VA arrived at the mine
at about 1:00 p.m. There were also volunteers from Tom's Creek, VA in the
rescue party. The last of the bodies and the living men were out of the mine by
2:00 a.m. of December 15. Eight men were dead and four were living. Two of the
living men had been on the Main Slope, and two on the entries to theleft of the
Main Slope.
Name of the Dead:
James Bearrowman (or Bearyman or
Barryman), Superintendent
William Ritchie, Line Foreman
Arch Leslie, Driver
Gussie Ritchie, age 15, driver
Lee Rowland, Trip Rider
George Miller, Miner, Slavishman
Charles Whittaker, Company Man
Charles Williams, Miner
Names of living and rescued men:
John "Swede" alias Noden,
Miner
James Rosenburg, Company Man
John Ritchy or Ritisky, Slavishman,
Miner
G. E. Lehman, Miner
All of the men were American except
where otherwise stated.
At this time, a single air course
paralleled the slope and was on the west side of it or on the left going inbye,
with a pillar of about 30 feet in width between. The air course was said to be
partially closed in places. All of the rooms on the west side of the slope were
rapidly to the rise and in several of them considerable gas was found. A small
fan was used for ventilating purposes and there was but one air current and
this traversed the entire mine workings. The measurement of the quantity of the
air circulating could not have been determined. The removal of the irregular masses of coal and rock and
in places the subsequent falling of the shale roof left pockets in the roof
which were quickly filled by gas which was not readily removed by the ordinary
ventilating appliances. In several places the coal was observed to have been
mined from above and below lenses for a considerable distances. Horizontally
lying lenses of sand rock cut out the coal in places and rendered mining
operations difficult. Were it not for the fact that the Old Imboden Seam
furnished coal of rather superior quality, it would have been rendered
unprofitable by the presence of these rock lenses.
A slope was driven directly down the
rather steep dip of the seam to a distance of about 3000 feet. An air course
was driven parallel to the Main Slope and on the east of it or left going
inbye, cross entries and rooms are turned directly off the Main Slope and air
course. All coal was shot off the solid though punchers had been used at one
time and one was found in the 7th East. Black blasting powder was
used in blasting the coal.
The explosion was a local gas
explosion originating in the 7th East and probably caused by the
naked light of one of the three men whose bodies were found in that entry,
igniting the pocket in the roof. The primary cause may have been the blowing of
the gas in the cavity in the roof down onto the naked lights of the men below
in an effort to brush the gas out of the entry by means of a compressed air
hose or pipe.
The explosion came across the slope
from east to west as was shown by the stoppings blown down from right to left
across the Main Slope. There was little coking of coal or dust since the Main
Slope was quite wet and the explosion had little pure coal dust to propagate
it.
That the Mine Foreman, William
Ritchie, knew the mine was gaseous was evidenced by the number of safety lamps
which were found in the commissary and by the establishment of a checking board
on the Main Slope where he met all the employees when they entered the mine at
the beginning of the shift.
The state of Virginia had no mine
inspection service and consequently the smaller mines were not operated in
accordance with the best mining practice. Mr. R. P. Bruce gave all possible
assistance during the examination of the mine after the explosion.
After a second explosion occurred in
the early 1930's, the mine was not reopened for many years.
Ray Hagan, Bond bought the Greeno
property April 17, 1946. Several years after his death, on December 6, 1978 the
Bondchild Corporation which is made up of the Ray Hagan Bond family, was formed
and still owns the Greeno mine.
The most recent mining was done by
the Fountain Bay Mining Company Incorporated and consists mainly of the Robert
M. Barr family of Orillia, Ontario, Canada.
Many of the details of the mine
explosion were taken from the report of J. J. Rutledge, Mining Engineer,
Pittsburg, PA, August 12, 1911.