Big Bad John - even has it own Wikipedia to carry the legend on :

The song tells the story of a mysterious and quiet miner who earned the nickname Big John because of his height, weight and muscular physique ("He stood six foot six and weighed two forty-five"). He supposedly came from New Orleans, where he killed a man over a Cajun woman.

One day, a support timber cracked at the mine where John worked. The situation looked hopeless until John "grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan / and like a giant oak tree just stood there alone", then "gave a mighty shove", opening a passage and allowing the other miners to escape the mine. Although the miners were about to reenter the mine with the equipment necessary to save John, the mine fully collapsed and John died in the depths of the mine. The mine itself was never reopened, but a marble stand was placed in front of it, with the words "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man - Big John" written on it. (Some versions of the song change the last line to "lies a big, big man" to replace what was at the time considered to be borderline profane language.)

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