This one isn't a legend, and that's what makes it hard to tell.
The morning of August 14, 1923, was an ordinary shift at the Frontier No. 1 mine, a mile outside Kemmerer. The mine had been open since 1887 and was pulling up to 700 tons of coal a day. That morning, 136 men walked in for their shift.
At about 8:30 a.m., the mountain went off. A blast of gas tore through the workings. When the dust settled and the rescue crews had done all they could, only 36 men had come out alive. Ninety-nine were gone — the second-worst mine disaster in Wyoming's history.
The coroner traced it to gas in one room, lit when a fire boss relit his safety lamp. Behind that one cold sentence were the wives, mothers, and children left in a company town with the breadwinner gone. The mine workers' union sent $10,000 to the families almost at once. Today a mural over in Diamondville keeps their memory — the long story of Lincoln County coal, ending in that one terrible morning.