Krebs Mining Memorial

The Krebs Mining Memorial commemorates the coal miners whose labor built Krebs and much of the surrounding Choctaw Nation coal country. Mining expanded rapidly in the late nineteenth century as railroads and industrial development created demand for southeastern Oklahoma coal. The work attracted immigrants from Italy, Wales, Russia, Poland and other parts of Europe, giving Krebs a cultural character that still influences the town's food and identity. Mining was also extremely dangerous. Explosions, roof collapses, gas and long-term health effects killed or injured large numbers of workers across the region. The memorial is important because it shifts attention from production statistics to the people who descended into the mines, often under harsh conditions, to support their families and communities. Krebs is an especially meaningful location for such a memorial because the town's history can still be read in its neighborhoods, churches, cemeteries and Italian-American traditions. A stop here pairs naturally with nearby McAlester and other former mining communities. The site is modest in scale, but it gives a human face to one of the industries that transformed southeastern Indian Territory before Oklahoma statehood.