Kenny L. Brown, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Central Oklahoma Working in the mines was notoriously dangerous. Explosions, roof collapses, suffocation, black lung, and being killed by large machinery are only a few of the ways that workers perished in the mines.
Krebs Mining Disaster, 1892
On January 7, 1892, a mine explosion at the Osage Coal and Mining Company's mine no. 11 in Krebs left nearly 100 men dead.