Brothers create Quecreek monument

SPRINGDALE TOWNSHIP: Two Springdale Township brothers will show a busload of people from the Alle-Kiski Valley this month that the tie binding coal miners together is as strong as granite.

Hearing about the nine Quecreek miners who were trapped 240 feet below the earth for 77 hours brought back powerful memories for Dave and Tom Bassetti. The brothers co-own the Bear's Inn in the former coal-mining neighborhood of Harwick.

"I didn't think all of them would be living," Tom Bassetti said. "But you've got to be one of the toughest people in the world to be a coal miner, and I figured if they used their heads and got up high, some might be OK."

And Bassetti, 44, should know. The ex-coal miner survived a 1979 accident at the former Renton mine in Plum that killed one man and buried five others in darkness and debris for more than six hours.

Coal dust must run through the Italian blood of the Bassetti family.

The brothers' late father, Lawrence "Spaghetti" Bassetti, was a coal miner, as were many of their uncles and cousins and their older brother Larry.

And while Dave Bassetti, 45, did not burn the midnight oil underground, he spent much of his adult life in mines across the Valley as a demolition worker when the industry collapsed in the 1980s.

After the Quecreek mine rescue, the Bassettis wanted to do something tangible to show their solidarity with their coal-mining brethren in Somerset County.

They decided to raise money to erect a monument in honor of the Quecreek miners in front of the Sipesville fire hall. The building is the headquarters of local

emergency crews that assisted in the rescue operation seven weeks ago and the spot where the miners' families were kept in seclusion during the agonizing ordeal.

The Bassettis raised $600 for the monument from patrons of their bar and restaurant, which is popular with former coal miners in the area. They also donated $3,400 of their own to the project.

"We only go around one time in life," said Dave Bassetti about his generosity.

Being constructed by Restelli Monument in Oakmont, the black granite slab will stand more than 3 feet tall and weigh about 1,000 pounds.

The names of the nine miners who were trapped underground will be chiseled on one face, while the other side will list the names of 10 miners who managed to evacuate Quecreek mine before it flooded.

On top of the monument will be a small bronze statue of a coal miner that was donated to the Bassettis by a family in Washington, Pa.

The stone will be surrounded by 19 American flags, one to honor each miner involved in the accident.

The Bassettis are no strangers to monument building. They were members of a committee that constructed a veterans' memorial in Springdale Township in 1986, and they also helped to build another monument seven years later that commemorates workers killed in the former Harwick mine.

The brothers traveled to Somerset County two weeks ago with several friends to install a base for the monument. They chartered a bus to return there Sept. 29 along with 45 other residents from the Valley for a dedication ceremony.

The Bassettis expect more than 400 people to attend the service including the nine Quecreek miners and their families, local clergy, rescue workers and government officials and maybe Gov. Mark Schweiker. The trip is open to the public.

Dave Bassetti said he is donating his time and money to pay tribute to what the Quecreek miners did for the spirit of the nation.

He gave the example of his 83-year-old mother, Mary, who usually goes to bed at 7:30 p.m., but stayed awake until about 4:30 a.m. July 28 until every miner was pulled up from the flooded shaft.

"The rescue captured a lot of people up around here and picked them up," Dave Bassetti said. "It was the miracle we needed."