Data for the mine disaster graphs and tables came from the following publications:

• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 509, Injury Experience in Coal Mining, 1948
• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 616, Historical Documentation of Major Coal-Mine Disasters in the United States Not Classified as Explosions of Gas or Dust: 1846-1962
• Bureau of Mines Bulletin 586; Historical Summary of Coal-Mine Explosions in the United States, 1810-1958
• Bureau of Mines I.C. 7493, Major Disasters at Metal and Nonmetal Mines and Quarries in the United States (Excluding Coal Mines)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume I, Coal Mines, 1810-1958 (MSHA)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume II, Coal Mines, 1959-1998 (MSHA)
• Historical Summary of Mine Disasters in the United States, Volume III, Metal and Nonmetal Mines, 1885-1998 (MSHA)
• Mine Disasters, OT 32, 2000 (MSHA)
• 1998-present, MSHA Fatalgrams and Fatality Reports
• Newspaper article citations from the archives at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy Library, Beckley, West Virginia (Historical Mining Disasters by Jane DeMarchi)