Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster at Ansted, West Virginia

Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster

 Ellie the Elephant and Dennis at Lovers Leap overlook in Ansted, West Virginia.



Ellie at the Lovers Leap sign Source: http://papa-dennis-says.blogspot.com/



You can see the Dam at Tunnel Entrance behind Dennis and Ellie in the background. You can get to this overlook from the Hawks Nest State Park Lodge where they also have an Aerial Tram to the Marina at the Bottom of the New River Gorge.

Here is a picture of the Tunnel Entrance at the Dam below Lovers Leap overlook at Ansted WV.

Another view of the same picture above, not quite as clear but taken in 2011 by Dennis Lester

The Picture below is of actual tunnel prior to diverting river through it.  Notice that it obviously done with crude tools. Picks, Shovels, Hand Augers and explosives were used to cut through the mountain.  This picture showing Hawks Nest Tunnel interior Source: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/3908_200.jpg shows the Tunnel 

http://img.geocaching.com/cache/3908_200.jpg; accessed May 7, 2009.

http://img.geocaching.com/cache/3908_200.jpg; accessed May 7, 2009.

Hawks Nest Tunnel Workers Source: http://www.asmalldoseof.org/historyoftox/1900-1930s/hawkminers.jpg

Another picture of Hawks Nest Tunnel Workers Source: http://www.semp.us/images/Biot622PhotoG.jpg

Here is a picture of the Tunnel outlet at the bottom of Gauley Mountain.   In the foreground is the emergency pop-off valve and behind it is the electrical substation and Ellie, the elephant,  is perched on a guard rail post along US Route 60 also known as Midland Trail. Source: http://papa-dennis-says.blogspot.com/



Drilled through three miles of solid rock, the Hawks Nest Tunnel is a major hydroelectric water diversion tunnel and an engineering marvel. Largely constructed between 1930 and 1932, the project engaged almost 5,000 workers, consisting of local men and a majority of migrant workers, most of them southern blacks. The tunnel was part of a complex to generate power for Union Carbide’s  electro-metallurgical plant in nearby Alloy. It was the largest construction project that had been licensed to that time in West Virginia, and it became the site of one of the worst industrial tragedies in the history of the United States.

The Hawks Nest Tunnel became an important part of the labor culture of the 1930s, generating a novel and several short stories, as well as songs and several weeks of national news stories when the extent of the tragedy came to public light. The tunnel continues to operate and provide power to the Elkem Metals Corporation, the current owner of the Alloy plant. A study published in 1986 indicates that as many as 764 men may have died from acute silicosis and related conditions, that was caused from working in the tunnel.

One of the books was " Witness at Hawks Nest" by Milton, WV native Dwight Harshbarger - A Historical Fiction Novel 

We must learn from our mistakes. We have indeed made a few. 

Papa-Dennis-Says