Morgantown Dominion Post
21 April 2007
Jason DeProspero/The Dominion Post - Sea Scout Douglas Bowman carries a branch past a pile of trash while clearing the area in front of the Federal No. 3 Mine site in Everettville on Friday afternoon. Bowman is working toward quartermaster rank, which is equal to the Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts. He is clearing the property for a memorial service April 30
Teens involved in Sea Scout Ship 46 began work Friday to honor the more than 100 miners killed in an explosion at the Federal No. 3 Mine in Everettville long before the scouts were born.
Through a project of Sea Scout Douglas Bowman, who is the national president, the local group gathered Friday afternoon to begin clearing brush and cleaning up the mine site in preparation for an April 30 memorial service. The scouts will continue working at the site today. The project will help Bowman earn his quartermaster rank.
Members of the Everettville Historical Association have made it one of their missions to create a mine memorial and park to honor all miners killed in Federal No. 3, when it was an operating coal mine.
This year's memorial service will be at 1 p.m. April 30, at the pit mouth of the old mine. A fundraising reception will be held at 6:30 that evening, at Waterfront Place Hotel.
It has been 80 years - April 30, 1927 - since a gas explosion ripped through the mine, killing 109 miners, including six who were trapped in the tipple.
The EHA expects CONSOL to donate the property at the mine site, where members will create a miners park and erect the memorial. The memorial will include a miners logo and names of all 149 miners who died in Federal No. 3 during its years of operation.
Info on EHA or the miners memorial: EHA President Carol Thorn, 983-2562 or cthorn1954 @comcast.net.