One of these days (?!?), I'm going to organize, index and pull together with new posts scattered pieces I've written about the coal industry that dominated northeast Lucas County from 1900 onward until World War II.
This postcard view from the museum collection is of Inland Mine No. 1, located two miles northeast of Chariton, and would be among the starting points. It's a colorized version of a photograph taken soon after 1913, when the mine was beginning to operate at full capacity.
The mine was called Inland because it was developed by the Inland Coal Co., organized in 1897 by William Haven --- the father of all phases of mining in Lucas County.
The first shaft was dug in 1901 and was fully operational by 1902, but this was a smaller-scale operation until 1913 when the north-south Rock Island (now Union Pacific) tracks were built through the county.
A spur to the mine then allowed coal to be transported by rail. The huge steel tipple was built in 1913 so that cars could be loaded conveniently as production soared.
By 1921, this operation was considered mined out, the mine was closed and everything that could be disassembled and moved to other mines was. While this was not the mine located closest to Chariton during the county's coal mining years, it was the first --- and the largest.
No comments:
Post a Comment