CROSS MOUNTAIN MINE DISASTER AND RESCUE
91st ANNIVERSARY
BRICEVILLE SCHOOL HISTORY LESSON
9 December 2002

On a cold, crisp, sunny day in the Coal Creek Watershed, Ms. Carroll's fourth grade class from Briceville School honored the 85 men and boys who perished in the Cross Mountain Mine Disaster on the 91st anniversary of the explosion.  They learned how five men were rescued 58 hours after the explosion by engineers and apparatus crews from the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Cross Mountain was the first successful mine rescue led by a U.S. government agency.  The class learned how mine rescue techniques that started at Cross Mountain culminated last summer in the successful rescue of Pennsylvania miners led by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.  The Clinton Courier News covered the history lesson along with the TV crew from Knoxville's Channel 10 NBC/WBIR's "Live at Five" reporter Kay Watson and Cameraman Scott Liston.  Singers/musicians Tony Thomas and Linda Gunderson performed their special mountain music that tells the story of the rich coal mining history of the watershed, which includes the Coal Creek War, the Fraterville Mine Disaster of 1902, and the Cross Mountain disaster of 1911.  Special guests also included Anderson County Tourism Director Stephanie Ailey and Tony's wife Patsy.  Mark Penland, from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, attended and presented the 2002 Aquatic Resource Preservation Award to the Coal Creek Watershed Foundation on this day.

Click on images below for some photos that show how these students
learn that history can be re-lived right outside their school.