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As they did last fall in honoring people killed in Carbon County mines, residents of Utah's coal country will pay their respects Saturday to victims of Emery County mine disasters.
Those include the two latest mass-death disasters to tear apart east-central Utah families — the 2007 Crandall Canyon Mine implosions that killed nine and injured six, and the 1984 Wilberg Mine fire in which 27 miners died.
Located in Castle Dale, the Emery County monument will be unveiled in a ceremony much like the one held last Labor Day in Price, said Lori Ann Larsen, who teamed with Dennis Ardohain and Frank Markosek in leading the resident-driven effort to pay homage to those who died in the mines.
"We tried to follow the same format," she said. "The counties are so intertwined we can't separate one from the other."
While the Carbon County memorial included the names of almost 1,400 people who died in a century of mining there, Emery County's version will have only 124.
But to Larson, numbers don't tell the story.
"Every one of those miners had a mother and a father. Many were husbands. Many were fathers," she said. "Parents were deprived of their sons, wives of their husbands, children of their dads. This is really to honor the miners as well as the loved ones they left behind."
The event will begin about 11 a.m., following the conclusion of a parade that's part of the annual Emery County Fair. American Legion Post 73 in Huntington will post the colors, while the Huntington Glee Club will sing the national anthem.
Speakers will include:
• Dave Lauriski, the Emery Mining Co. safety officer who led the ill-fated effort to rescue the 27 Wilberg miners before he later became head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA);
• Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America
• J. Brett Harvey, a coal-country native who went on to become the CEO, now retired, of Consol Energy
The most emotional parts of the ceremony will involve the reading of the victims' names, a performance of the song "Amazing Grace" and a release of white doves.
Besides paying tribute to the fallen miners, Markosek said these twin events are designed to show the general public that the country could not enjoy its energy independence without the painstaking efforts of others — especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in a mining accident.
"People often don't realize why [these miners] were in there digging the coal," said Markosek, an MSHA inspector who suffered a severe brain injury when a mine-tunnel wall blew in on would-be rescuers at Crandall Canyon, killing three and injuring six.
"They don't know what made that light switch turn on or what heats their homes," he added. "Mining is an important part of their lives even if they don't know it."