Chasing History: The Underground Road Trip Takes You To The Hawks Nest Workers Memorial Cemetery
- Denetra Hampton
- Nov 16
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 21
by Denetra Hampton, November 15, 2025
In 1930, West Virginia became the home to one of the worst industrial disasters in American history, known as the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster. In order to build the tunnel through solid rock, hundreds of unemployed men were recruited and the majority of these workers were African Americans. Due to the dust from the blasts, silicosis would kill over 760 workers. And as the death toll continued to rise, the majority of them were African American. But there was no where to bury them.
The History Behind The Tunnel
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