This Month in W.Va. History: How an engineering marvel became an industrial disaster

With its easily accessible overlook, Hawks Nest offers 180-degree views of mountains, the New River and the Hawks Nest Dam, but just below the surface of the water at the dam is the site of arguably one of the worst industrial disasters in the state’s history. (Shannon Stowers)

With its easily accessible overlook, Hawks Nest offers 180-degree views of mountains, the New River and the Hawks Nest Dam, but just below the surface at the dam is the site of arguably one of the worst industrial disasters in the state’s history.

Cutting a hole through a mountain and building a dam to divert water is a large undertaking even by 21st century standards, but when ground was broken on the Hawks Nest tunnel project 91 years ago this month, it was a monumental plan.

The ultimate goal? Cut a three-plus mile tunnel through the mountains, build a dam and divert the water to generate electricity at a Union Carbide plant downstream. At the time, the project was one of the largest of its kind in the state.

Ground for the project was broken in March 1930 and the contract called for completion by March 13,1932. Contractor Rhinehart & Dennis would need bodies if it was going to get this done... luckily for them, the country was in the thick of the Great Depression. Thousands of men would come to work on the tunnel project. Hundreds of them wouldn’t survive.

The Hawks Nest tunnel is about a three-mile tunnel that diverts water from the Hawks Nest Dam to a hydroelectric plant downstream. The project is estimated to have killed more than 700 workers. (Courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives)

A workforce that was made up largely of African-American men from the South began plowing through the mountains, working 10-15 hours shifts blasting and drilling through the dust-filled tunnel -- sometimes at gunpoint, the workers later testified in Congressional hearings. It was also reported that white workers were not treated as harshly.

Prior to the project, core samples indicated that Gauley Mountain was made of nearly 100% sandstone, which bore high-grade silica. Rhinehart & Dennis, as well as most civil engineers at the time, were aware of the dangers of silica dust. The common practice is to limit the lung-scarring dust by wet drilling, but that process is slower -- and remember, there was a two-year contract for this project.

A U.S. House of Representatives investigation found that “silica dust was so thick in that tunnel that they could not see an electric light 10 feet away,” according to Rep. Glenn Griswold. He said workers testified that buzzers rang to give workers a heads up when inspectors were coming and they would stop dry drilling until the coast was clear.

Many of the nearly 3,000 workers who came to work on the project left after less than two months, but it didn’t take long for many to start showing symptoms of silicosis and, eventually, dying. While some death certificates from company doctors or bewildered local physicians may have said “pneumonia” or “tunnelitis” silicosis was sweeping through the workforce. 

It is unclear to this day exactly how many workers died from silicosis in the Hawks Nest tunnel project. The U.S. House hearings set the death toll at 476, but due to many of the workers moving away and living years after exposure, as well as rumored large, unmarked burials and mislabeled deaths, an official total will never be known.

A study published in 1986 by epidemiologist Martin Cherniack estimates that as many as 764 men may have died from acute silicosis or related conditions, while a 2002 study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health estimated close to 1,000 men died.

Following a series of x-rays by a Charleston doctor, a Fayetteville law firm began drafting litigation on behalf of workers. In the end, Rhinehart & Dennis and Union Carbide paid $200,000 in out-of-court settlements, amounting to an average of less than $400 for each worker who filed a lawsuit, many of whom received much less.

The disaster prompted congressional subcommittee hearings and investigations in 1936 which resulted in a report that denounced the working conditions at the tunnel, but stopped short of any action against the companies. In the same year, lawmakers passed legislation requiring the use of respirators in dusty working conditions. The disaster also eventually resulted in the designation of silicosis as an occupational disease with compensation for workers.

The tunnel was ultimately completed in 1935 and has been in operation ever since.