First, it's the site where the bodies of the miners were recovered following the Christmas disaster and it's also the site where legendary UMW President John L. Lewis went underground only two days after the explosion. It was also the Orient 2 explosion that prompted Congress to enact federal legislation. On July 16, 1952, President Harry S. Truman signed into law the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act, after John L. Lewis testified before Congress about the disaster. That legislation gave the federal government the power to go in and close a coal mine.

Bob Rea