Coal Miners Memorial

Price, Utah

You don't realize how many ways a coal mine can kill you until you read the brief descriptions of the deaths of the 1,353 miners listed on the Carbon County Coal Miners Memorial. It was dedicated in September 2015, and features a statue of a coal miner holding his pick and gazing heavenward and another of an angel releasing a dove. These are surrounded by upright granite slabs listing all 1,353 names.

A lot of the miners were killed by being crushed or blown up, but some died in unexpected ways. John Cunningham, for example, was "pulled into the revolving machine picks." William Lager "lit fire to warm coffee for dinner, burned to death." William Stevenson was "smothered under the body of a mule." Edward Ward "walked out of mine with crushed head, unable to tell anyone what happened." And then he died, of course, adding his name to the memorial.