By James Nelson

HELPER, Utah, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Central Utah, where six miners were still trapped deep underground on Saturday, has long been rich not just in coal deposits, but also the fortune and despair that come with pulling it from the ground.

Rescuers still hoped to reach the six, despite detecting no signs of life from a microphone lowered through a 1,800-foot (550-metre) bore hole that may have missed its target.

A second hole was punched through a different part of the cavern, although rescuers did not immediately disclose whether that had provided any information about the six men trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine.

Monuments and museums to past accidents and tragedies mark the roads and towns in the center of the state.

Coal mines dot hills stretching above a high desert plateau. In lush valleys, horse farms with pine trees and green grass contrast with the scrub brush on hillsides. Red-brown sandstone columns rise above some areas, giving it the name "Castle Country."

The list of accidents stretches back at least to May 1, 1900, when 200 men were killed by an explosion in the Winter Quarters Mine, one of the worst mining accidents in U.S. history.

In 1924, 172 men died in a series of explosions or of carbon monoxide poisoning at a mine in Castle Gate.

And in 1984, a fire in the Wilberg Mine killed 26 men and one woman.

It's a painful legacy.

"I just give them my blessing and tell them, 'Don't tell me about those scrapes with death.' My wife and I pray our heads off," said Joe Bonacci, whose two sons work in Utah mines. Bonacci's father and uncle, both immigrants from Italy, were also miners; his uncle was a miners' union organizer.

"People are aware of the risk," Phil Notarianni, director of the Utah Division of State History, said in an interview as rescue workers drilled toward the six miners trapped this week some 140 miles (225 km) south of Salt Lake City.

The mines of Carbon County and Emery County have long offered, alongside danger, an opportunity for many immigrants.

Finns, Italians, Chinese, Serbians, Greeks, Japanese and other ethnic groups have worked the mines.

Today, many miners are from Mexico and other Latin American countries. According to mine officials, the six miners trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine include three Hispanics.

"They were unskilled, but they had strong backs," Bonacci said of immigrants who came to work in the mines.

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