Mortality

This bronze, titled "Mortality", is the work of West Virginia sculptor Bill Hopen. His study of a dying tunnel worker eulogizes the many men lying in unmarked graves near Hawk's Nest Tunnel about 30 miles from here. There was no memorial for nearly a thousand workers who died breathing silica dust during tunnel construction. The tunnel was constructed to divert the New River three miles through a mountain to supply hydro-electricity to a private power plant at Gauley Junction, a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation. It was begun in 1930 and completed in 1935, and is still in use today. The dam for the tunnel can be seen from Hawk's Nest State Park. "I think it important that we remember these men as individual souls whose lives were needlessly cut short." -Bill Hopen.