CLAIM: A black-and-white photo of a young boy clutching a huge pick shows an 8-year-old coal miner from Utah or Colorado in the early 1900s.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo, which belongs to the Helper’s Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper, Utah, was staged by the boy’s parents, the museum’s director told The Associated Press. Additionally, while 8 year olds did work cleaning coal at the time, they did not go underground with their fathers as actual miners until they were older, he said.
THE FACTS: The striking image has been circulating online with claims that it shows an actual child miner since at least 2007, when it was uploaded to Flickr.
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Popular posts on Instagram, Twitter and the new social media platform Threads revived the photo — and the false claim about its subject — in recent days.
In the black-and-white picture, a young boy dressed as a miner holds a pick nearly as tall as he is in one hand, as a pipe hangs out of his mouth. His eyes are squinted in what appears to be a tough-looking expression.
An Instagram post that shared the picture had received more than 89,800 likes as of Friday.
Roman Vega, director of the Helper’s Mining and Railroad Museum said the image — which in real life is actually more of a sepia tone — was indeed taken in Utah, probably in 1900 before a May 1 explosion at a nearby mine that killed approximately 200 workers.
However it doesn’t depict a real pint-sized mine worker, he said. Instead, it was staged by the boy’s...
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