This hopeful immigrant couple represents one of many who traveled to the Appalachian Mountains from Ellis Island, NYC, heeding signs for work available in the southern coalfields. Communities such as Bluefield, Dante, and Pocahontas still today take pride in the Polish, Hungarian, Italian, and Czechoslovakian heritage of their citizens. The memorial stone and anxiously awaiting friends and family of the ill-fated miners who died in an explosion in Pocahontas, VA, a year after the mine opened, reflect the tragic hazards of mining in the early days.
Ellen Elmes
PO Box SVCC
Richlands, VA 24641-1101
email: ellen.elmes@sw.edu
phone: 276.964.7205
fax: 276.964.7720