Saturday, December 10, 2016

Old, and not so old, Abandoned Coal Mines

I was going to title this Abandoned Coal Mines, but there are some modern coal mines that have recently been shut down. Hopefully, they will not end up abandoned.

A page of several mining photos The site has several other pages about Illinois coal mining

Photos: A historical look at coal mining in Southern Illinois (source)

Madison Coal #6, Divernon, IL: 4 photos

Peabody Coal Mine 17

Roger KujawaSeven track tipple and washing plant for Sahara Coal Company near Harrisburg, IL
Robert Thompson we have to buy insurance for mining subsistence because it is not known where shafts were, they were like private mines not on maps. some houses have sunk in. IDOT hit a mine shaft when they were repairing the main interstate here. [Lives in Peoria.]
James L. Ludwig Raymond Tutaj Jr. built the scale model of the St.paul Cherry mine in HO Scale-it is on display at the Ladd public library.
Richard Fiedler We have friends in Pekin where part of their house settled about a foot due to subsidence of an old mine tunnel several hundred feet below.
Bill Edrington Sahara was served by a spur from the Big Four (NYC) Cairo Branch near Harrisburg.



Roger Kujawa shared a photo of the tipple

The Complete Story of the November 13, 1909 Cherry, Illinois Mine Disaster that killed 259 men. (source)



Coal Valley Mining

Panama Creek Coal

Peabody's Humphreys and Kincaid mines


On August 4, 1965, the first example of a Marion 5860M shovel went to work at the Norris mine of Truax-Traer Coal Co., Division of Consol. The Norris Mine, near Fiatt, Illinois in Fulton County produced 5000 tons of coal per day and was marketed under the "Red Amber" label. The shovel carried a 80 cu.yd. dipper on a 180 foot boom.

photo posting     Myron Dudenbostel This is the Marion 5860 at Truax Traer's Burning Star #3 mine at Schuline (Sparta), Illinois Randolph county. I was the ground man on it for a while and spent many cold nights welding that "upside down flat" on the teeth on the crowd stick. 

TheSouthern, photo 22 of 27
The Truax Traer Coal Company ran a surface mine in Du Quoin from 1951 to 1970.


William A. Shaffer posted
Coal Mine & Tipple at Lincoln, IL (Circa 1972)
(Photo by William A. Shaffer)
Roger Kujawa posted
Lincoln Illinois coal shaft at Citizens Coal mining Company.

Mike Coker posted
Emanuel Collier That had to be the 1 I've heard about out on W Monroe between Chatham Rd & veterans
Kenneth Baker was also known as "Citizens mines B " near durkin dr & monroe 
the rail road that serviced min a & b was the CP&STL

Jimmy Fiedler Kenneth Baker is this area down there in Springfield that was having newer homes sinking into the ground due to mines collapsing?
Roger Kujawa posted
Sunnyside Coal Co. Herrin, Illinois.

Larry Joe Jenkel posted
Old Squirrel Mine. One of Herrin's first Mines. 1910



Roger Kujawa posted
Southern Gem coal Company
West Frankfort, Illinois.

Roger Kujawa posted again
Mark E. Vaughan Notice the boxcar. Either inbound supplies or out bound bagged coal. Yes, coal was occasionally shipped in boxcars.
Rich Linder Mark E. Vaughan must have been the best vintage.
Steven Holding Also stock cars. The Ottumwa Box Car Loader Co. made the conveys to load them. Helped in cold weather to prevent freezing.

Roger Kujawa posted
West Frankfort, Illinois, Southern Gem Coal Co. Mine No 1, Exterior, Kropp 980 N

Roger Kujawa posted
Coal mine #7 Staunton, Illinois.

Roger Kujawa posted
Staunton Illinois Postcard c1915 Number 2 Coal Mine

Roger Kujawa posted
Taylorville Illinois Postcard c1910 Christian Coal Company Operation

Roger Kujawa shared
Jimmy Fiedler Was there actually any deep mines operating in Illinois?
Paul Meier Depends on what you consider deep. Hundreds of feet which is fairly normal in Illinois coal, vs thousands of feet for hard rock metal mines.
Dave Durham Peabody #10 at Pawnee was at one time the worlds largest underground coal mine
..200-300 feet deep.
Kerry Doyle Underground coal in Illinois was mined from about 180’ to 500’ down.
Kerry Doyle Some, of course, was more shallow, but this is a safe generalization.
Dennis DeBruler I would assume that the minimum depth for an underground mine became deeper as strip mining shovels increased in size and mining (and railroads) moved further out into the rural areas.


Roger Kujawa posted
Mine. Mining. Coal. Mining Operation in Carlinville, Illinois 1910s.

Roger Kujawa posted
Jonesville, IL, 1926
Trent Blasco Gondola coal loads....back breaking work to unload
Harold J. Krewer Yep, but you'd be surprised how much coal moved in gondolas, especially prior to WWII.
Raymond Breyer would probably know the exact year it changed, but for quite a while more coal (both number of cars and total tonnage) moved in gondolas than in hoppers.
Labor was cheap. Hopper cars were expensive.

Raymond Breyer More importantly, machinery was expensive. A simple portable electric conveyor, one that we all take for granted these days, would eat up YEARS of profits for most places before WWII. Muscle power was far more cost-effective through the first half of the 20th Century.

All of the gondolas in this shot, and most seen around Illinois coal mines through the late 1950s, had drop doors in the floor making unloading easier. It still wasn't any fun at all to shovel one out.
Raymond Breyer commented on the above posting
 The IC had tens of thousands of them. This one was built in 1940, and they didn't stop building them until the mis-1950s. Just about every railroad running after 1890 had some cars like this, and on some railroads like the IC, CB&Q, Wabash and Milwaukee, these types of cars made up most of their gondola roster for most of the 20th Century.

Raymond Breyer commented on the above posting
The last time I saw a car like this "in the wild" was on the KB&S in 2006.
Trent Blasco That car must be MOW or Non inerchange? it still has friction bearing trucks
Roger Kujawa posted
United Electric Coal Company Freeburg (Freiburg), Illinois
Myron Dudenbostel In operation from 1925 to 1949.

Mike Yurgec Pete Fischer was the super out there in the late forties to mid fifties. It was called the "Red Ray" mine in the years right before it closed. Some of the concrete foundations for the tipple are still visible. Located south of Freeburg (right spelling) on the Illinois Central.

Mike Yurgec For more info on mines in St. Clair County, look here - https://www.isgs.illinois.edu/.../mines-directory-stclair... (copied to my mining notes)


Mike Yurgec commented on Roger's post
Mike Yurgec Pete Fischer was the super out there in the late forties to mid fifties. It was called the "Red Ray" mine in the years right before it closed. Some of the concrete foundations for the tipple are still visible. Located south of Freeburg (right spelling) on the Illinois Central. The photo is the location of the Red Ray mine just south of Freeburg,Rich Linder Mike Yurgec a small part of that photo is the RedRay works. Most of it is the original pit (pit 1?) for River King. It is difficult to outline exactly where River King and Red Ray overlapped because they pretty much did that all along the Red Ray Boundries. Red Ray was minute compared to the River King digs. I think Red Ray spent as much calendar time on strike as it did mining coal.Dennis DeBrulerhttps://www.google.com/.../@38.3961058,-89.../data=!3m1!1e3

Mike Yurgec posted
Mulberry Mine - Freeburg, Illinois
A comment in Roger's previous posting:
Mike Yurgec Different mine. This was located just north of the Freeburg village limits.
Rich Linder Mike Yurgec the old Red Ray shops, which were still standing and serviceable in 1956, were used to service and maintain the haulage trucks when River King Pit 1 was dug by Big Paul. It began on the east side of Silver Creek but silver creek was eventually rerouted and it eventually went all the way west to connect with the previous Red Ray spoils and today they appear to be one dig. The most western digs were not hauled to the Freeburg Tipple by truck but were trucked to a rail loading facility just a little east of the old Red Ray Shops and a IC rail siding was built to serve it, much like the early days of Pit Six. The cars were moved using a double cable system similar to the type used at the tipple car loading tracks. (Two tracks). Most of the evidence of the tracks isn’t visible from google earth anymore.

Mike Yurgec posted
Star Mine - Freeburg, Illinois.
Roger Kujawa posted
Paradise Coal Mine Du Quoin, Illinois.
Bryan Maloy I have been looking for Forsythe mine tipple W of Cambria IL and Farley Bros tipple N of Desoto.
Mike Yurgec posted
Star Mine at Freeburg, Illinois.
Rich Linder That tipple looks a lot like the Mulberry Hill mine just north of town. But I was only 3 or 4 when Mulberry closed so my memory might not be that good. But I do remember watching the IC steam engine push coal cars up the incline to the south. They used gravity to move the cars through the chute. Star mine, on the other side of the track and south of Freeburg closed in the early '20's. 

http://isgs.illinois.edu/.../coal.../topo-mines/freeburg.pdf
Roger Kujawa posted
Illinois Third Vein Coal company Mine Ladd, Illinois. MILW, Burlington, NYC, LS&BC and C&NW all served the Ladd area coal mines in interchanges.
Springfield Rewind posted
Sangamon Coal Company 2300 E. Enterprise - 1936
Stephen Ausmus My cousins lived on the corner of Albany and Enterprise where the coal mine was is where we rode our go carts and motorcycles in the 70s and built forts in the woods.
Charlie Bridges When I was a kid my grandmother had coal delivered and it was dumped down a coal chute into her basement. She then paid me a quarter to bring a bucket of it up to her living room for the fireplace. I had an uncle who died in the West Frankfort coal mine explosion back in December 1951.
Tony Bortolozzo My grandfather was a coal miner in the PEARLESS MINE north of sangamon ave.
Carl Venzke posted
Coal loading on the C&O - Consol Coal - Jenkins, KY 1950
Clay Whatley Wow. Those cars are really loaded.Elden Baker They used the coal as ballast. Overloading the cars meant they didn't have to give track and time to the MOW ballast crew. 
Springfield Rewind posted
Buckley Coal Co.
Chatham Rd & Old Jacksonville Rd
Feb 6, 1926Kenneth Baker the shaft was where the fire dept building is on west monroe the air shafts were behind the old thrifty drug -citizens mina A mine B was further west on monroe &clocktower
those tracks are the old cp&stl rr
Roger Kujawa posted
Not sure which Railroad this was on, IC, CB&Q or Milwaukee Road.
Ken Hejl The Oglesby Coal Co. mine (The Bent Mine as we Oglesby people know it) was located along the Illinois Central main line behind what is now Holy Family School. The Milwaukee Road served the mine from a 1/4 mile spur that branched off the main about 500 feet east of Church St. Both lines went right into the mine. The Burlington ran on the bottom level along the river and served the mine with product being moved down the hillside to the track. The Burlington depot was at this location.
Illinois Central Railroad Scrapbook posted
Easy does it!
During the steam era, coal mines along the IC were typically switched by 2-8-2's, not 4-8-2's with twelve-wheel tenders! But in this photo taken by Richard Wallin, we see 4-8-2 2604 switching a coal mine at Elkville, IL, on Oct. 18, 1958.
Note that the ties have sunk completely into the earth and it appears that 2604 is leaning towards the engineer's side. The hogger has to be extra careful on this flimsy track, for the big 4-8-2 weighs a whooping 794,500 pounds with a fully loaded tender.
Time is quickly running out for 2604 and all other active steamers on IC's roster. By now most active IC steamers were concentrated in and around the coalfields of western Kentucky and southern Illinois. However, in the spring of 1959 all remaining active IC steamers will be pulled from service. In late October, 1959, a handful of steamers will return to service out of Paducah, KY, but not 2604. It will stay in the deadline until it was scrapped in late 1960.
Richard Wallin photo, Cliff Downey collection.
HISTORICAL STRIPPING SHOVEL ARCHIVE posted
[People comment about being there, but no one bothers to explain where "there" is.]

Larry Joe Jenkel posted
Buckner Mine of the United Coal and Mining Company
Larry Joe Jenkel Jim Tunney no this is a Franklin County Mine. West of Benton/West City

Justin Curless posted
This Photo was taken on the Spoon River Scenic Drive Fulton County illinois

Richard Mead posted
Chicago Milwaukee & St Paul cars at Mine#6 in Braceville, IL.
Incorporated as the Gardner, Coal City & Northern Railway (GCC&N) on April 4, 1888, would exclusively serve the Braidwood coalfields near Braceville, owned by the CM&StP. Construction began that August and opened just a few months later on October 29th, running from Walker (near Plainfield) to Gardner, a distance of 35 miles (it was later extended to South Wilmington in 1899 to serve additional mines)
Jacob Horenstine posted
Assumption Illinois coal mine Illinois Central served
Roger Kujawa shared
Spring Valley, Illinois Coal Company Mine 1.
[Probably one of three mines served by C&NW.]
Bart Hileman posted
1970, Sahara Mine #6 near Carrier Mills Illinois, during the Penn Central years. Saline Valley Branch Line out of Harrisburg Illinois.
John Mitchell In the fall of 1982, I photographed a Virginian hopper car in pristine condition,, on the Sahara #6 empty hill. A few days later I caught a PRR hopper car, there, in the same condition!
Museum Of The Coal Industry posted three photos with the comment:
The Big Creek Mine, operated by the Wasson brothers. The mine was located southeast of Lynnville, Indiana and operated from 1946 to 1960, when it was bought out by Peabody Coal. The major stripping machines were a Bucyrus-Erie stripping shovel and a Page 625 dragline.
1
Big Creek Tipple

2

3
Page 625 dragline
Wheelwrite, KY  An Inland (steel, I presume) mine. 1930-1966, 66m ton.

Billy Hammond III commented on a posting about another Inland steel coal company mine
Billy Hammond III Was the last Rend lake area mine to Operate
Inland Steel  where are the other photos of these silos near Sesser and the other mine where the silos are now used for grain????
Roger Kujawa posted

Springfield Illinois Coal Mining Company at Taylorville, Illinois. The Wabash, B&O and C&IM all went to Taylorville so I’m not sure who served this mine.
Roger Kujawa posted
Pontiac Illinois Coal Mine circa 1911.
Paul Meier There were once many small mines in the area. El Paso reportedly had one on the south end of town Only sold coal locally.
A different colorization.
Roger Kujawa posted
Colorized Zimmerman Photo Coal Mine Pontiac, Illinois.

Roger Kujawa shared


Not all abandoned coal mines in Southern Illinois are old. It looks like some mines are actually being cleaned up.

Michael Wright shared
Coal mining machinery that sort of looks like a monster. Taken by my drone just a few feet off the ground. In Franklin County, Illinois
Brian Storey Old Ben 21 gob pile reclamation
David Minor I went out there a couple times as an inspector.
Dennis DeBrulerhttps://www.google.com/.../@38.1137941,-89.../data=!3m1!1e3

Old Ben #10 Christopher, IL

TheSouthern, photo 18 of 27
Zeigler Coal Co. opened its first mine in 1904. It was on the north side of the company town that would incorporate as the city of Zeigler in 1914.
TheSouthern


TheSouthern, photo 19 of 27
Damage is shown at the Industrial Coal Company Mine in West Frankfort after the Tri-State Tornado in 1925.


TheSouthern, photo 21 of 27
A mine in West Frankfort during the 1950s.


TheSouthern, photo 22 of 27
United Electric Mine No. 11 in Du Quoin was open from 1929 to 1974.

TheSouthern, photo 5 of 8
The United Electric Coal Company was open in Du Quoin from 1927 to 1974.

TheSouthern, photo 6 of 8

Justin Curless posted
Kewanne Coal Mine Cuba illinois.

Justin Curless posted
Maplewood Coal Company Farmington illinois

Bruse Weirach posted
Chicago Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
06 Feb 1938, Sun • Page 97
Roger Kujawa posted
Kathleen Coal Mine at Dowell near Du Quoin IL, Illinois.

Berry Coal Mine, Putnam County, Granville, Illinois has these three photos
1

2

3

Roger Kujawa posted
Peabody Coal Mine Danville Illinois postcard circa 1930.
Michael D Fortney Also shows a typical one-lane hard road with wide gravel shoulders common in Vermillion County back then. This helps to explain why on a two wheel-drive vehicle, the wheel at the right rear is the one driven.
Kevan Davis Those one lane roads are 100 years or so old. They are for the most part In better shape than the roads paved 5 years ago.

Roger Kujawa posted
Missionfield Coal Company West of Danville, Illinois. 1/2 of a stereo postcard.

Roger Kujawa posted
1912 RPPC POSTCARD OF BUNSEN COAL COMPANY UNIVERSAL MINES #5 DANVILLE ILLINOIS

Roger Kujawa posted
Wabash Coal Company Dawson, Illinois.

Roger Kujawa posted
Mt Olive Consolidated Coal Co Mine #15 Illinois Postcard.
Mark E. Vaughan Largest producing coal mine on the Wabash.

Justin Curless shared his post
"Southern Illinois,1983"-Amax Coal Mine NE of Marion,Illinois.

Roger Kujawa shared
DuQuion Illinois Postcard c1910 Eaton Coal Mine Train.
Illinois Central?

Howard Keil shared
East Peoria IL (Wesley City) Supplied the Lake Erie & Western RR.
Howard Keil https://www.washingtontimesreporter.com/.../160329573...
Nick Koba Jr. what years did it operate ?
Tyler Chasco Lake Erie Mining Company, Lake Erie Mine
Type: Underground Total mined-out acreage shown: 980
SHAFT, SLOPE, DRIFT or TIPPLE LOCATIONS
Type County Township-Range Section Quarters-Footage
Old slope Tazewell 25N 4W 6 NW NE *
Air shaft Tazewell 25N 4W 6 NE NW NE
Air shaft Tazewell 25N 4W 5 SW SE NW
Air shaft Tazewell 25N 4W 8 SW NW NE
* The top row of sections in T25N-R4W is about 2,000 feet longer in the north-south direction than a regular one-mile
section. Traditionally, the points are oriented from the southeast corner of the section (see page 6). This slope is
outside the square mile grid. Its approximate location (generated from the accompanying map) is 1100 FNL, 2000
FEL.
GEOLOGY
Thickness (ft) Mining
Seam(s) Mined Depth (ft) Min Max Ave Method
Springfield 265 4.33 RPP
Geologic Problems Reported:
PRODUCTION HISTORY
Production
Company Mine Name Years (tons)
Progressive Coal Company Progressive 1899-1902 41,000
Lake Erie Coal & Mining Company Lake Erie 1902-1905 58,220
Carters Coal & Mining Company ** Carters 1905-1906 14,532
Lake Erie Coal & Mining Company Carters 1906-1908 28,487
A. B. Cumming Lake Erie 1908-1909 21,885
Cumming Brothers & Company Lake Erie 1909-1910 9,600
Lake Erie Coal & Mining Company Lake Erie 1910-1917 118,956
Maplewood Sales Company Maplewood No. 1 1917-1919 122,206
Lake Erie Mining Company Lake Erie 1919-1939 3,028,242
3,443,128
** The title block for the 1908-1911 microfilm map, document 352868, reel 03140, frames 495 & 496, states “Rushce
Mine (New Carters) Coal Mine”. The unlocated mines at the back of this report (East Peoria group) includes a
Rushce Mine that operated 1878-1889. The 10-year gap between the opening date above and the closing date of
Rusche is the major factor that prevents combining the two production histories.
Last reported production: February 1939

Tyler Chasco posted
The largest coal mine in East Peoria was the Lake Erie Mine situated on Wesley Road just off what now is North Main Street. The Lake Erie was what is called an underground slope mine, meaning it did not have a vertical shaft but rather burrowed into the side of the hill and sloped downward to a coal vein. In this case, it was the Springfield Coal Vein at a depth of 265 feet. The area mined covered over one and a half square miles and stretched a far east as Springfield Road with air shafts located at several points. It employed some 50 men and produced 300 tons of coal per day. Its "Wesley Coal", so named because of its proximity to Wesley City, was highly prized for its purity. The seam of coal that was mined was four and one third feet thick, requiring miners worked in underground corridors less than five feet high. The coal was transferred to the surface by mine carts or trolleys pulled with stream powered cables. Mules were not used as in other East Peoria mines. This mine was a 'pick mine', which meant there was no machinery used to extract the coal, just picks to break apart the coal after black powder charges had been detonated to fracture the coal face.
Tyler Chasco Several were along Cole Hollow , many along the river, Kickapoo Creek , Marquette Heights, Pekin. Ill post a link to a map showing all the mine locations
Tyler Chasco http://isgs.illinois.edu/viewers/coal-mines-viewer.shtml...
Barry Van Hook Joshua Ross Some of those mines were under the Pekin Avenue hill. And many houses up on the hill suffered from cracked plaster, etc., due to settling.
Tyler Chasco Another mine fact... Dupont lane got it's name due to that area having the Dupont blasting powder houses located on that little road
Tyler Chasco https://www.isgs.illinois.edu/.../topo-mines/peoria-east.pdf
Tyler Chasco Here is another mine fact on this mine. Prior to being Erie coal it was known as the Wesley city coal comapny, owned by Rusche family. They used St Benard dogs to pull the wagons of coal out, then used mules. The mine started as a "doghole" as they called them due to the use of dogs to haul coal
[Satellite]

There is quite a bit of info about coal mines in this Pana, IL post including the following two images.

1


2
 
John Hartsock posted



1900's Elmwood

Coal Mines Pontiac Illinois IL 1911 Postcard Bolander's ZIM Divided Back

Vintage Postcard:Coal Mine Shaft No.3 Streator Illinois c. 1916 and Northern Illinois Coal Corporation Tipple 1935 Wilmington # 10 mine
Museum Of The Coal Industry posted
For September, we are highlighting the Princeton Mining Company's Kings Station Mine. Represented by UMWA Local #5584.
This mine was located just south of Princeton, Indiana on the west side of U.S. 41. It was in operation for 50 years, from 1924 to 1974, when it was bought by Old Ben Coal Company.
Kings Station employed about 300 miners and had an output of about 500,000 tons yearly.

Roger Flatt Sr. posted
Old Ben #14 in Buckner. My Dad rode the last union cage on the last shift.
Author
East end of Buckner. One old mine building left. It was the wash house lamp room and office.

Roger Kujawa posted
Postcard Coal Mines Roanoke, Illinois view above ground. This would have been on the Santa Fe line from Streator to Pekin.
Remember when Roanoke had the huge slag pile?
Perhaps the most unusual Tipple I’ve ever seen.
Don't see many with a huge birdhouse on top.
Was this photo taken after tornado damage?

Roger Kujawa posted, cropped
1926 Eagle Blue Lead Ad: Coal Mine No. 10, Illinois Coal Co. - Nason, Illinois



In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I avoided "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. Specifically, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. I hope you can access posts in Private Groups.




loaded coal cars in a storage yard at Orient #2 (there is a head house in the background)



Roger Kujawa posted
Vintage RPPC Colchester Illinois Postcard Burney Coal Shaft

Jim Piacenti posted, a mystery

Roger Kujawa posted
Postcard - OGLESBY ILLINOIS - Outer Works No. 1 Coal Mine - probably on the Milwaukee Road but could also be on the Illinois Central or the Burlington.
Roger Kujawa shared

Comments on Roger's share
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