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PRICE, Utah (AP) — During a ceremony filled with teary tributes, a new monument was unveiled Monday in Price to honors the 1,352 miners that have died working in Carbon County since 1890.
Former coal miners Dennis Ardohain and Frank Markosek raised $350,000 for the project, making sure all the names of the fallen miners were included on the memorial.
Parents, children and spouses of fallen miners traveled from various parts of the state and country to attend the ceremony and hear the names read aloud, the Deseret News reports (http://bit.ly/1QmG0R2).
Flora Holguin came to honor her husband, Mike Guzman, who died along with four others when a roof fell at the Plateau Mine in 1979. He left behind his widow and five daughters.
"We were high school sweethearts," Flora Guzman said, smiling. "These men, they so deserve this."
An identical tribute will be added to honor Emery County miners who have died as well.
Linda Dimick Lindsey honored her husband Jerry Lee Dimick, who died in 1986 when two tons of rock crushed him at the Carbon County mine.
"It was unbearable," said Lindsey of her husband's death.
Aili Allen, 85, traveled all the way from Michigan to read the name of her grandfather, who died at Winter Quarters in 1900 in a dust explosion that killed more than 200 miners.
Hope Robertson wore a button with her fallen husband's picture and read his name: Bret D. Robertson. He died in 1998 in the Andalex mine.
"We are all so close," Robertson said. "To have all of this tied together the way it is with this monument is so remarkable."
Maggie Lopez McFadden was only 25-years-old when her father, Jesus Florez Lopez died in a mine in 1969. She said she moved out of state to get away from the memories, and wasn't sure she would come back for the dedication of the memorial.
"It's the same pain," said McFadden, now 71. "The pain does not go away."
Utah Rep. Brad King, D-Price, said the memorial serves as a deserving historical marker of the sacrifices made by coal miners.
"They are not just miners, but community builders, even nation builders without whom Utah would not be what it is today," King said. "But more importantly, we remember the fathers, sons, brothers, grandfathers, cousins, nephews and neighbors, each with a personal legacy and each with a personal story."
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