News of World War II and a variety of local events pushed the report headlined "No. 3 Will Be Operated by Powell" to the bottom of the front page of The Chariton Leader of Sept. 8, 1942, 80 years ago this autumn.
In terms of consequence, however, this was a near-cataclysmic event in a county where coal mining had been a major economic player since 1876, when the first exploitable veins of coal were located near Lucas.
Indiana No. 3, also known as Rock Island No. 3, had been state of the art for Iowa when it opened in 1929 and employed at its high point 400 miners. A majority of these men lived with their families in Williamson or Chariton, many traveled to and from the mine daily by train.
The images here, when pieced together, form a panoramic view of the mine and its crew, taken during November of 1939.
Here's the text of the article reporting the decision that had sealed its fate:
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"Rock Island Mine No. 3 at Williamson will be closed down as far as railroad production is concerned and will be operated in the future only on a commercial basis by the Powell Coal Co. of Chariton, it was announced today.
"The mine has been working 200 men recently. When in full production it employed 400 men and produced 2,000 tons daily, all for railroad consumption. Powell in purchasing the mine stated: 'It depends on the coal business how many men will be employed and how fast we take out remaining coal. there should be enough coal to last seven or eight years.'
"It is a certainty however that not nearly as many miners will be needed for commercial production. This will mean further depletion of the population of Williamson. Countless families have left the once thriving community in recent years, many to other fields such as the Union Pacific mines at Rock Springs, Wyo., and now more will be forced to leave.
"The mine is the last large mine in the county and probably will be the last big railroad mine of its type ever operated here. Railroads today can buy strip mined coal cheaper than they can produce it themselves and following the war, diesel powered locomotives will undoubtedly be used more and more.
"Opened in the boom years of 1928-29, the mine was known as the finest in Iowa and one of the best in the United States. Expensive equipment was installed, which included cementing of not only the shaft but entries as far as a quarter to a half-mile back. There were electric lights and the mine was at one time one of the few in the country that brought its mules up each night. Barns were built to house them, a double track was put down at Williamson on the main line in addition to the track to the mine. This double track was taken up recently and moved, the material being needed by the road.
"The train for miners was secured for Chariton after a bitter fight with Melcher at the time the mine opened, and as a result many Chariton citizens have always worked at No. 3.
"Jim Hope, mine superintendent for the Rock Island railroad, former superintendent at No. 3 and now in Oklahoma, was in Chariton today settling up affairs for the company and preparing to turn the mine over to the Powell Coal Co., owned by Bert Powell of Chariton."
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No. 3 continued to operate in ever diminishing fashion until February of 1954, when it closed. Two years later, the Big Ben Coal Co. opened a smaller mine in the old Tipperary field to the east. It closed during 1978 and that was the end of coal mining in Lucas County.
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