VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY!!
COAL CREEK SCHOLARS'
RESEARCH PROJECT
ASSIST IN RESEARCHING
AREA NEWSPAPERS
PUBLISHED AT THE TIME OF
THE
CROSS MOUNTAIN
MINE DISASTER OF
9 DECEMBER 1911
Friends and relatives awaiting
news
of
the
rescue efforts after
the Cross Mountain
Mine
explosion in Briceville
Meet at East Tennessee History Center McClung Historical Collection
(3rd Floor) 601 South Gay Street, Knoxville, Tennessee
9:30 a.m. until Noon -- Saturday, April 2, 2011
The Cross Mountain Mine exploded on December 9, 1911. Although 84 miners died, five were rescued by engineers and apparatus crews of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. We plan on hosting a memorial service and tour of the Cross Mountain Mine portal and cemeteries where miners are buried on the 100th anniversary of the event.
The East Tennessee Historical Society at 601 S. Gay Street contains archives of Knoxville newspapers on microfilm. We have scheduled a work day to research newspaper articles published during the two weeks after the explosion. The owner of the mine, the Knoxville Iron Company, was the largest employer in Knoxville at the time of the explosion. We expect that the event received extensive news coverage.
If you are interested in volunteering to help, please contact Carol Moore at 865-584-0344 Ext. 102 or clmoore@geoe.com. We will meet at the East Tennessee Historical Center at 601 South Gay Street in Knoxville from 9:30 am until noon on Saturday, April 2nd to show you the newspaper archives, and what type of information needs to be mined from those records. It would be a good group project, so you might want to recruit other Coal Creek scholars to help or to carpool to Knoxville.
Knoxville Iron
Company was the largest
employer in Knoxville at the time of the
Cross Mountain Mine Explosion in Briceville
DIRECTIONS: The East Tennessee History Center is located in downtown Knoxville at the corner of GAY St. and CLINCH AVENUE. Their address is 601 S. GAY St and their entrance is directly across from the Tennessee Theatre. Parking is available at various nearby public parking lots and garages.
Parking is free in city garages all day Saturdays and Sundays. Also parking meters. The State Street Garage is only one block from the history center and would be a good place to park. By all city garages, that means all city-owned garages (some are private). You can Google "free parking in downtown Knoxville", and you should get a map that shows the free weekend parking.
From I-75 south, take I-40 east. Go less than a mile and then take the James White Parkway exit. Drive about a mile and then take the Summit Hill exit and turn right at the exit. Go down Summit Hill a very short distance and turn left at the light at the bottom of the hill onto Central Ave. Then take the third right onto Clinch Ave. (from here you are two blocks from the history center) As you start up the hill, you will see the garage on your right and the entrance from Clinch. Come out of the garage and walk one block up Clinch, and the history center is right in front of you.