The coal mining history of this particular hollow can be traced back to the 1940s. Future problems were unforeseen in 1945 when the Lorado Coal Mining Company opened Mine no. 5 near the top of Buffalo Hollow near Saunders, W. Virginia. The dumping of the sludge from Mine no. 5 was taking place at the mouth of Middle Fork. The Sludge dump functioned much like a dam and was treated in this respect without much thought. The Buffalo Mining Company bought out Lorado in 1964 and began dumping behind the first
"dam" at the Middle Fork stream. The old one proved to be questionable when it failed in 1967. There was no considerable damage, but the threat remained. However, the threat was not taken seriously as the coal company continued to pile waste. In 1970, to add to the danger, when Pittston Coal took over, a third dam was constructed behind the first two. The streams behind were completely blocked by this network of sledge dams (Dennis Deiz, 1992).

During the last week of February 1972, the streams and ponds behind the first dam began to rise steadily. The ponds, also used as settling ponds for the nearby coal processing (water cleansing) plant, had millions of tons of sludgy material on the bottoms which functioned much like quicksand. The water rose as a result of pounding snow and rain while the Pittston Coal Company continued to pump water in from the cleansing plant at a rate of 500,000 gallons per day. It was already nightfall on February 25th when officials began to question the stability of the dams. There was no drainage system installed and no real way to release the pressure. The state had cited the Pittston Company in 1971 after the failure of the fist dam, but no action was taken to follow up and require the installation of emergency overflow systems. As the waters rose, the only action taken was to warn a few families about flooding possibilities. This warning was taken little notice of because it was a common occurrence in the area to be warned of the threat of flooding. But when Dam no. 3 began to show signs of collapsing, Pittston sent for a bulldozer to dig a drainage ditch to relieve some of the building pressure. The company knew that the collapse of the third dam would mean certain and potentially disaster of flooding (Tom Nugent, 1973).

At 7:45 AM, as men worked on the dam, water began to rush down the valley. Only a few residents had been warned at this point. Dozens of lives could have been saved if the people of Buffalo Hollow had been properly warned of the possibility of danger. Pittston Coal neglected to warn The Mining Bureau, the National Guard, the State Police, and even the Logan County Sheriff’s office. At 7:59, the dam completely collapsed. Massive explosion were set off as the rushing water met with the smoldering yellow-suffer coal waste deposits. At 8:01, a huge torrent of rushing water swept through Buffalo Creek and carried all of the burning coal-waste with it. A canyon 45ft. deep in places was the result as more than 120 million gallons of water and 35 million cubic feet of waste materials thrashed down the valley in a wall sometimes 35-45 feet high. By 11:00AM, it was all over (Gerald Stern, 1976).

The disaster killed 123 people, injured 1,000, and left 4000homeless. Houses were demolished and the ones that stood were eventually condemned. Besides the statistic, the flood left countless scars on the survivors and the citizens of West Virginia that cannot be counted or described (Gerald Stern, 1976).

Officials of Pittston Coal claimed the flood was "an act of God", as they argued that there was nothing wrong with the dam except that it couldn’t hold all of the water "God poured into it." Public outrage followed this comment, and the catastrophe was to undergo years of investigation and speculation. Some citizens had been writing the governor, worried about the dam and the flooding danger. Mt. Hope native and inspector for the state of W. Virginia, Jack Spadaro, claims that it was, "a requirement by the state that a permit be granted before the construction of any dam could have ever taken place in Buffalo Hollow at all." No action was taken by the state when he requirement was not fulfilled and it was, therefore, an outright violation. The theory Pittston Coal stood behind is that the water would trickle through the dams at a slow rate and the possibility of pressure build up was never to reach a life threatening point. They were proved wrong (Gerald Stern, 1976)