The Rolling Mill Mine was a drift portal coal mine in operation in Johnstown,

Cambria County Cambria County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 133,472. Its county seat is Ebensburg. The county was created on March 26, 1804, from parts of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Somerset Countie ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, operating from approximately 1856 until 1931. It was originally owned by the Cambria Iron Company and was developed in the Westmont hillside across the

Conemaugh River The Conemaugh River is a long tributary of the Kiskiminetas River in Westmoreland, Indiana, and Cambria counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The name means 'Otter Creek', originating from the Unami-Lenape language word ''kwənəmuxkw' ...

from the company's rolling mill. Its portal was near the confluence of the

Stonycreek River The Stonycreek River (also referred to as Stony Creek) is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, approximately 45 mi (72 km) long, in southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Course It rises in the mountains of eastern Somerset ...

and

Little Conemaugh River The Little Conemaugh River is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in western Pennsylvania in the United States. The main branch rises in eastern Cambria County, along the western slope of the Appalachi ...

. It supplied the bulk of the coal used in the iron and steel making taking place in the city, producing an average of 3,000 tons a day in 1902, and primarily employed recent

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

from Central and Eastern Europe.

Explosion

On Thursday, July 10, 1902, at approximately 11:00 a.m., a powerful explosion occurred in the Klondike section of the mine, and ultimately 112 miners, 84 of whom were immigrants from England,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, lost their lives. The explosion was attributed to what miners refer to as

firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...

, a methane gas mixture. Killed immediately were those miners working in the Klondike section. Many other miners, as well as the vast majority of mine animals, were killed by an asphyxiating gas called

afterdamp Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by methane-rich firedamp, which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust. The term is etymologically and practically related to other terms for un ...

that spread through the mine as they fled to the Millcreek Portal, several miles away, the only other exit from the mine. In fact, only seven of the deaths in the disaster were caused by the explosion; the rest were caused by afterdamp. The mine was re-opened on Monday, July 14, but the disaster devastated the immigrant community in Johnstown and provoked calls for investigations and greater safety measures from public officials and even foreign governments. The Rolling Mill Mine Disaster still ranks as one of the most deadly

mining accidents A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground coal mining, although accidents also occur in hard rock mining. ...

in the history of the United States.

Closure

The mine continued in operation until 1931, when the portals were sealed after it was worked out. At the end it was known as Mine #71 of the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, which in more recent times was known as BethEnergy.''Johnstown: The Story of a Unique Valley'', Karl Berger, M.D., editor. Privately published by the Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown, PA, Copyright 1984. Library of Congress catalog number: 84-82116. No ISBN available; out of print.

Entrance

One of the original entrances to the Rolling Mill Mine can still be seen on the James Wolfe Sculpture Trail, which runs down Yoder (Westmont) Hill near the incline and directly across from the

Point Stadium Point Stadium is a baseball park in the eastern United States, located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The "Point" refers to its location at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh, Stonycreek, and Conemaugh rivers. It is home to the annual ...

. Coal was transported to the nearby Iron Works through this portal on a company-built trestle.

References

{{Coal mine disasters in the US Buildings and structures in Cambria County, Pennsylvania Coal mines in the United States Geology of Pennsylvania Coal mining disasters in Pennsylvania 1902 mining disasters Underground mines in the United States Mines in Pennsylvania 1850s establishments in Pennsylvania 1931 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Former mines in the United States 1902 disasters in the United States July 1902 events Disasters in Pennsylvania Former coal mines