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The Hoosier State’s ample bat habitat is a function of its geological heritage and industrial history.
With the emergence of the United Mine Workers of America in the 1890s, coal towns such as Linton, Indiana became crucibles of labor struggle.
Greene County’s first coal mine was built in 1859; there were about 200 mines in the area by century’s end.
In August 2007, amidst hourly updates on the fate of six coal miners trapped by a Utah mine collapse, word of another mine accident emerged—this time from the Hoosier State. Three workers in the Gibson Mine descending into an air shaft they were building fell more than 500 feet to their death when the bucket lowering them was somehow upset.