Knox Mine disaster

Knox Mine disaster
Map of Knox Mine disaster showing inundated area and shafts used for escape and dewatering
DateJanuary 22, 1959 (1959-01-22)
LocationJenkins Township, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates41°18′29″N 75°49′23″W / 41.308°N 75.823°W / 41.308; -75.823
TypeMine subsidence, Mining accident
CauseMining too close to waterway resulting in mine flooding and subsidence
Deaths12

The Knox Mine disaster was a mining accident on January 22, 1959, at the River Slope Mine in Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania.

The disaster occurred when workers were ordered to dig illegally under the Susquehanna River without proper safety precautions, creating a hole in the riverbed which caused the river to flood into the many interconnected mine galleries in the Wyoming Valley between the right-bank (western shore) town of Exeter, Pennsylvania, and the left-bank (eastern shore) town of Port Griffith in Jenkins Township, near Pittston. Twelve miners were killed. Plugging the hole in the riverbed took three days, and mitigation efforts created several new islands between the two towns and altered the western-side flow of the Susquehanna around these.