Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster

The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster is one of several names applied to a large-scale incident of occupational lung disease in the 1930s resulting from construction of the 32-36-foot-wide Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. Another name is the "Hawks Nest Tragedy." The loss of life is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history.

The disaster's roots lay in the push to have enough hydroelectric power for a metallurgical plant in Boncar, later named Alloy, WV. It involved one of the country's largest corporations, Union Carbide and Carbon Company, and occurred during the early years of the Great Depression. The primary actors, in addition to Union Carbide and Carbon Company, were Rinehart and Dennis, a regional construction company, and thousands of people searching for work. In the end, the estimate is that 4800 men (1700 White and 3100 Black) worked on the project, but only 738 White men worked underground. Many of the Black men were migrating from the South.

The general causes for the disaster were a push for speed, which led to the majority of the drilling being done dry, rather than wet, and a lack of concern for employee safety. This lack of safety led many laborers to becoming ill with silicosis, many of whom died. Many of the supervisors also became seriously ill, to include more than 40 supervisors by 1934.

The many cases of illness and death led to publicity, 538 lawsuits and a Congressional investigation in 1936. The resulting publicity reached the general public and led to socially-minded artists such as Muriel Rukeyser, taking an interest in it. Rukeyser visited in 1936 and published her book of poems, The Book of the Dead, in 1938.

In the past two decades, however, the disaster has once again become a subject for study. A resident of the region, Patricia Spangler, published Hawk's Nest Tunnel: An Unabridged History (2008), and Cultural Resource Analysts, conducted a cultural historic survey for the Hawks Nest-Glen Ferris Hydroelectric Project. In addition to the scholarly work, this disaster has led to the creation of a site focused on the names of those who died and works of nonfiction, art, and film.