 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2014) |
 Map of Knox Mine disaster showing inundated area and shafts used for escape and dewatering | |
| Date | January 22, 1959 |
|---|---|
| Location | Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Coordinates | 41°18′29″N 75°49′23″W / 41.308°N 75.823°W |
| Type | Mine subsidence, Mining accident |
| Cause | Mining too close to waterway resulting in mine flooding and subsidence |
| Deaths | 12 |
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.
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