In spite of a well-organized rescue effort led by the newly created Bureau of Mines, 84 miners died in the disaster.

At least 22 of those killed were buried in a circular memorial known as the Cross Mountain Miners' Circle, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Rising to an elevation of 3,534 feet (1,077 m), the mountain is the highest point in Tennessee west of the Blue Ridge Province.

[4] Coal Creek, a tributary of the Clinch River, flows northward along the southeastern base of Cross Mountain, slicing a narrow valley in which the communities of Briceville and Fraterville are located.

The Cross Mountain Mine was located at the western end of Slatestone Hollow, just over 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Briceville.

The methane gas and coal dust ignited when a miner approached the roof fall with an open oil lamp.

[10] Water was piped into the mine from a nearby brook, allowing the Bureau crews to extinguish fires and erect brattices.

[11] They were found between the 16 and 17 Left entries of the mine, an area they had chosen because it contained water tubs normally used for mules to drink.

Others were buried at the Briceville Community Church cemetery, among them Eugene Ault, whose monument is inscribed with the "farewell message" he wrote on the wall of the mine as he lay dying.