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Mining Music
Song of the Quecreek Miners
by Jene' Lind
©July 2002
See also: Quecreek Mine Inundation
On a dark and cold, cold night
In a Pennsylvania mine below
Were nine miners working there
In the dusty, dark and coal
When suddenly they bore
Through a wall of another mine
And water started rolling in
To the shaft where there were NINE
Oh the tedious dilemma
What were they going to do?
With 60 million gallons of water
Flowing right on through
Dennis Hall warned his buddies
"Water's coming - get out NOW"
They fled that cold, dark mine
Knowing he'd get out, somehow
The wall of the adjacent mine
Crumpled and collapsed
Dennis and his fellow miners -
Yes - all NINE - were trapped
Coal miners are a tough breed
They don't panic in distress
They huddled there together
Their jobs - to help the rest
The County of Somerset
Was quickly on the move
They had their men now buried
Men they were not going to lose!
They had the ingenuity
They had 'rescue' on each face
They started boring through the rock
Against the clock they raced
They knew on Thursday morning
The miners were still alive
But with the noise of drilling
They lost the sounds that night
The men all worked together
Never faltering in their quest
To bring the miners to safety
And unite them with the rest
The whole world watched in prayerful mode
And tears sometimes were shed
With determination among the workers
Progress moved ahead
Then on Friday morning, a drill bit broke
Rescue plans were dashed for a while
They couldn't let the miners down
So drilled another hole, with a smile
We'll get them out, the shouts were heard
As Governor Schweiker smiled
He knew the men; hard-hatted, hardheaded
And big-hearted, all the while...
Would not give up until
The rescue ended with all nine
Being lifted out, one by one
Out of that cold, dark mine
They reached the chamber
That would-be tomb
For those long dark hours
On Saturday night at 10.16
Now the long wait was nearly o'er
Again they heard the sounds they knew they'd find,
And huddled there together, sustaining life
To each other; were the nine
Cramped in a space not four feet high
And water three feet deep
They snuggled with each other
To keep in body heat
They prayed and gave each other comfort
Waited out the nights
They knew the men above the ground
Would bring them to the light
And then on Sunday morning
Like the dawning of a day
At 1.00 a.m. the first man up
One miner out of harms way
The way the miners emerged
From their would-be tomb below the earth
Appeared as they were settled on the stretchers
Like a rebirth
Nine lives were taken from the bowels
Of the earth again
And happy, smiling faces were shared
Among the men
Yes, hard hatted, hard headed
And big hearted were the men above
But huddled deep within the mine
Nine men had shared love
And now a happy ending
To this once quite fearful story
It shows the love this world can hold
And all of God's great glory
When people pull together
With determination and grit
A miracle is then evolved
Because miners never quit |
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