October 23, 1958. Springhill, Nova Scotia. At 8:06 pm, the deepest coal mine in North America yielded to pressure from the earth's core and burst apart. Subterranean collisions shook the town, registered in distant cities as an earthquake, and upset ships at sea. 175 miners were trapped a vertical mile underground. Volunteer rescuers fought down into a maelstrom of gas and coal-dust, and found a dozen survivors. Then no one else came out. Ambulances and hospitals stood waiting; where were the injured? Days passed. Rescuers found only bodies, and parts of bodies.The world's first televised disaster commanded international attention, like the nine coal miners recently trapped in Somerset, PA. After a week, longer than men ever had survived underground, rescuers uncovered a desperate group of men clinging to each other and to life. Until this book's publication, their harrowing stories have remained buried unknown.
The rescue was so dramatic that, to this day, Springhill is called "Miracle Town."