On December 6, 1907, a massive explosion ripped through the Monongah Nos. 6 and 8 coal mines in Monongah, West Virginia, killing 362 miners, many of them immigrants and boys. It remains the deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history, triggered by methane gas and coal dust. The tragedy highlighted the dangers of unregulated coal mining during America's industrial boom and prompted federal reforms, including the creation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1910. It underscored the human cost of rapid industrialization in the Appalachian region.

The Monongah disaster inspired labor-themed poetry and writings that amplified calls for workers' rights, influencing early 20th-century proletarian literature. Poets and writers documented the harsh realities of mining life, contributing to social realism movements. It echoed in Appalachian literary traditions, where authors like those in the Harlan County tradition later portrayed miner struggles, linking personal loss to broader critiques of industrial capitalism in verse and narrative.