Mining Health Study

Many of the documents in the Library’s digital collection extol the glories of life in early Joplin, the wealth to be made in the mines, and the beauty of the architectural showplaces that lined Joplin’s streets. This document paints a vastly different picture, one that details, in uncompromisingly clear language and sophisticated scientific measurements, the horrifying cost to the miners and their families of all this burgeoning prosperity. The Federal Bureau of Mines investigators came to Joplin in the last months of 1914 and stayed until mid-July 1915. The result of their field work is this report, which stands today not only as our most comprehensive description of the actual mining operation but also as a stunning catalog of the health and safety dangers present in Joplin’s zinc and lead mines.


This project has been made possible by a Library Services and Technology Grant administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the office of the Missouri Secretary of State.