Miners Memorial - Labor Day September 7th, 2015

Almost here!

For the past 17 months my life has revolved around the Miners Memorial Monument.  I have researched, documented and looked for information about the 1351 miners who have died in coal mine related accidents in Carbon County, Utah.  What a fun experience it has been to work with all the members of the committee.  I think there are many of these miners who wanted to be found really badly.  They almost showed me or told me where to look for them.  All the members of the committee have had inspiring experiences from working on this project.  It has been a wonderful experience.  One that I will never forget.

About September of 2014 I began in earnest to look for photographs of the miners to create a slide show to share at our Miners Memorial events.  The slide show now has 356 miner photos on it but that is only 26% of the miners.  I keep telling everyone that I'm going into retirement from the committee after this project but I'm sure a part of me will still be looking for stories and photographs of these men for a long time to come.  The goal is to put a memorial in Emery County and three satellite monuments in Scofield, East Carbon and one in Helper.

In October I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine, Doris, asking her for help with the typing of the hundreds of newspaper articles and other information.  She happily accepted my request of help.  I could never have completed this project without her help.  When I sent her the word document it was 50 pages long.  She has been a lifesaver to me.  During the past ten months Doris and I have compiled a 510 page book about the miners of Carbon County.  This book gives information about each and every miner whose name is on the plaque.  We were lucky to be able to have the book published and will be for sale at the dedication.  The book is also on CD and it continues to grow.  The CD version of the book is 523 pages.

The day of the dedication is finally almost here.  Monday, September 7th, 2015 at the Peace Gardens in Price.  The ceremony will begin at 9:30 in the morning.  There will be speeches, dedication by three different clergy from different churches, the unveiling and then the names of all 1351 miners will be read.  I have the opportunity to read about 25 of the names on the list.  My list starts with Joe Suianni, then Ray Ward down to Ed Willis.  There has been a few of them taken out to give to other readers.  I'll have to read through the book to learn about the men who are on my list.

It will be an awesome day.