The Hurricane Creek Mine Memorial is located in Hyden, Kentucky. Friends and families of miners along with Representative Tim Couch, Leslie County Judge Jimmy Sizemore, and several Leslie County Magistrates erected this memorial in 2011 to honor the thirty-eight men who died in the Finley Mine disaster in 1970. The memorial itself contains a wall of names of the miners who died, a statue of a coal miner, several plaques that discuss the mine disaster, and thirty-eight helmets that represent the men who died on that day.
“Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster Memorial” photos by Zoe Brooks
Further Readings:
Historical Summary of Coal Mine Explosions in the United States, 1959-81
J. K. Richmond, G. C. Price, M. J. Sapko and E. M. Kawenski, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines Information Circular, 1982.
Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster
McKenzie Martin, “Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster,” in ExploreKYHistory.
‘My heart still aches.’ Families Mark 50th Anniversary of Deadly Ky. Coal Disaster
Morgan Eads and Bill Eastep, “‘My heart still aches.’ Families Mark 50th Anniversary of Deadly Ky. Coal Disaster,” Lexington Herald Ledger, January 2, 2021.