National Register of Historic Places - Mexican Miners pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/80003297.PDF Please visit the National Park Service website for additional photographs. Mexican miners played a heroic role in the coal mining industry of southeastern Oklahoma. At its height between about 1910 and 1930, some 1200 Mexicans worked in the mines of the district. Most had immigrated to the area from Mexico after having been miners in Texas or Colorado. The Oklahoma mines were very attractive to these men because wages were comparatively high for the: time about $3.60 per day in 1917 and $5.00 per day by 1931. But the mines were also the most dangerous in the country; coal mining had the highest fatality rate of any industry in the state. Major disasters took scores of lives at a time. On February 22, 1912, for example, a fire broke out about 100 feet from the bottom of the shaft in the Number Five Mine at Lehigh. On this occasion, 22 year old Rufino Rodriguez, an illiterate Mexican miner, saved 190 fellow workers from certain death. He sounded the alarm throughout the mine, almost losing his own life in the process. In May, 1914, Rodriquez received a medal for heroism from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Other disasters ended on a more tragic note. On December 17, 1929, a gas explosion in the Old Town Company Little Bolen Mine in North McAlester resulted in the death of 61 of the 66 men working below. Among them were 32 Mexicans, including five sets of brothers who worked together and died together in the mine. In all, this disaster left more than 250 destitute and grieving relatives to face a dismal future without their men. Since there were neither death benefits for dependents nor even enough money to bury the dead, a public subscription was mounted. After an appeal by Will Rogers, donors from around the country pledged more than $70,000. The Mexican government alone contributed $10,000 to the destitute families, and the Red Cross coordinated the relief effort. Three days after the explosion, the victims were interred in several nearby cemeteries. Twenty-four of the Mexican miners were laid to rest side by side in a huge grave dug by convicts from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Though a representative of the Governor placed a wreath on the grave, and the Mexican consul led the funeral cortege, the mass grave itself was marked only by a single wooden cross. Subsequently, families of ten of the victims erected stone monuments commemorating their loved ones. These headstones are the only monuments to the Mexican miners who died in the disaster of. 1929. The present site consists of a plot 70 feet long and 10 feet wide running north to south in Mount Calvary Cemetery, McAlester. The line of headstones runs from south to north and the monuments carry the following inscriptions in this order: 1. Memorias Francisco Moreno, 1890-1929 Alverto (sic) Moreno, 1905-1929 2. Juan M-P Chavez Nacio 6 Marzo 1910 Fallecio 17 Dec. 1929 N. McAlister Okla 3. Gregorio Chavez Nacio 9 Mayo 1905 Fallecio 17 Dec 1929 N. McAlister Okla 4. Alberto Chavez Nacio 7 Augusto 1909 Fallecio 17 Dec 1929 N. Me Alester Okla 5. Ignacio Castillo Nacio 1882 Fallecio Dec. 17, 1929 N, McAlester Antonia R. Castillo Recuerdo 6. Frank Medena (sic) Husband of Ines Medena (sic) 1901-1929 7. Manuel Huerta Husb. of .AuroraiHuerta 1909-1929 8. Anasato Numez (sic) Mar. 17, 1896 Dec. 17, 1929 Gone but not forgotten 9. Emilio Gonzales 1898-1929 The Chavez monuments are grouped together, but the other stones are separated by irregular intervals.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:42:57 +0000
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