Coal Resources 

Oklahoma

^GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1042-J

Prepared in cooperation with the 

Oklahoma Geological Survey

1

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA

By JAMES V. A. TRUMBULL

ABSTRACT

The original reserves of bituminous coal in Oklahoma are estimated at 3,673 

million short tons, and the reserves remaining in the ground as Of January 1, 

1953, are estimated at 3,245 million short tons. All available information about 

the location, thickness, and extent of the coal beds of Oklahoma was used in 

the preparation of this estimate, which includes only coal in beds 14 inches 

or more thick and within 3,000 feet of the surface.

The Oklahoma coalfield is in the eastern third of the State, and is continuous 

with the Arkansas coalfield on the east and the southeastern Kansas coalfield 

on the north. The coal-bearing rocks are of Pennsylvanian (Des Moines and 

Missouri) age. They are strongly folded in the southern, or McAlester basin, 

part of the coalfield, where their overall thickness averages about 8,000 feet. 

The formations into which the rocks of the southern part of the coalfield have 

been divided are in large part traceable into the northeastern Oklahoma part 

of the coalfield, but there they are much thinner, are of different character, and 

have a relatively uniform low westward dip. The names applied to the formations in the two parts of the coalfield are the same, but little progress has 

been made in correlating the': coal beds between the two areas.

Less than 10 coal beds in the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield are 

known to be continuous over distances greater than about 15 miles. By far 

the most important of these are the Lower and Upper Hartshorne beds and 

the McAlester (Lehigh) bed, which average from 3 to 4 feet in thickness over 

large areas and together contain over 50 percent of the estimated remaining 

reserves of the State. Much of this coal, however, is in areas where steep dips 

have so far restricted or prevented mining.

The Henryetta coal bed in Okmulgee County is close to 3 feet in thickness 

over large.,areas, and it has been extensively mined by both underground and 

stripping methods.

The coal beds of northeastern Oklahoma are for the most part less than 30 

inches thick, and production from them has been almost entirely by strip mining. The more important and better known of the 14 named coal beds in this 

part of the State are the Croweburg (Broken Arrow) and the Dawson. Considerable mining has been done in several of the other beds, but because only 

widely scattered thickness measurements and little outcrop mapping are available, an estimate of the amount of reserves present in them was not attempted.

Sixty-five percent of the estimated remaining reserves of coal in Oklahoma is 

of high-volatile bituminous rank, 13 percent is of medium-volatile bituminous 

rank, and 22 percent is of low-volatile bituminous rank. Nearly all coal of 

medium-volatile and low-volatile bituminous ranks is in Haskell and Le Flore 

Counties.

307
308 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

Twenty-five percent of the estimated remaining reserve is in beds from 14 

to 28 inches thick, 39 percent is in beds from 28 to 42 inches thick, and 36 percent is in beds over 42 inches thick. Coal under less than 1,000 feet of overburden makes up 58 percent of the estimate, coal in the 1,000- to 2,000-foot 

overburden category makes up 25 percent, and coal in the 2,000- to 3,000-foot 

overburden category makes up 17 percent. Because of the great amount of 

accurate information needed to delineate strippable coal deposits, no estimates 

of strippable coal reserves could be prepared. A breakdown of the remaining 

reserves based on the relative abundance of the information on which the 

estimates are based shows that 17 percent is classed as measured reserves, 49 

percent is classed as indicated reserves, and 34 percent is classed as inferred 

reserves. The unusually low percentages of coal in thin beds and in the inferredreserve category is due to the frequent proximity of the 3,000-foot overburden 

cutoff line to the outcrop in the southern part of the field, to known variability 

in bed .thickness in many of the thinner beds, and to inadequate information 

on which to base estimates of the amount of coal in the thinner beds of 

northeastern Oklahoma.

The total reported production of coal in Oklahoma from the beginning of 

mining in 1873 to the end of 1952 is about 166 million tons, of which slightly 

less than 17 percent was strip mined. The amount of coal produced by strip 

mining has increased from 13 percent of 1930 production to 60 percent of 1952 

production. In 1952, 45 percent of Oklahoma's coal production was used in 

the manufacture of coke.

The amount of coal originally present in mined-out areas and rendered unminable because of the future need of barrier pillars around presently abandoned mines is estimated at 427 million tons. Comparison of this figure with 

the total recorded production of 166.45 million tons indicates that overall recoverability in mining in Oklahoma has been about 39 percent. This unusually 

low figure is in large part the result of the prevalent high dips of many of the 

more important coal beds and of the need of leaving unusually wide barrier 

pillars downdip below flooded mines.

. One. or more lignite beds of Cretaceous age occur in Cimarron County, at the 

extreme western end of the Oklahoma panhandle; coal of Pennsylvanian age 

is present south of the Arbuckle Mountains in Carter County in south-central 

Oklahoma. Little detailed information about these deposits is available; but 

it is thought that they are not extensive, and no estimates of the reserves have 

been made.

INTRODUCTION

The present'report on the'coal resources of Oklahoma has been 

prepared by the Geological Survey in cooperation with the Oklahoma 

Geological Survey as part of a program to reappraise the coal reserves Of the United States, It is based on a Study of all available in-' 

* **rmatio:n. ponceriaing tke location, thickness, extent, and rank of the

COal beds in the State. In addition to Showing the quantity and 

distribution of coal in the State as nOW blOWn, It IS intended tO pFOvide a. convenient summary of the sources of detailed information,

anct tO point out areas where additional detailed information is

neefei. '.

As estimated by use of the definitions, procedures, and assumptions 

outline^ in the next section of this report, the original reserves of
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 309

coal in Oklahoma total 3,673 million short tons, and the reserves remaining in the ground as of January 1, 1953, total 3,245 million 

short tons; (See table 1.)

TABLE 1. Summary of estimated reserves of coal in Oklahoma 

[In millions of short tons]

Rank of coal

High- volatile bituminous _ _______________

Medium- volatile bituminous _____________

Low- volatile bituminous __________________

Total________________ _______________

Original 

reserves

2, 466. 27

459. 45

747. 10

3, 672. 82

Mined and 

lost In mining

351. 73

29.37

46. 23

427. 33

Remaining 

reserves as of 

Jan. 1, 1953

2, 114. 54

430. 08

700. 87

3, 245. 49

Although this new estimate is markedly smaller than earlier estimates, it is based conservatively only on factual information now available, and thus should have immediate practical usefulness. The 

estimate will probably be increased in the future as additional mapping and exploratory work is done and the results used to prepare 

another estimate.

The Oklahoma coalfield (fig. 37) lies in the eastern part of the 

State at the intersection of several major north-south and east-west 

railroads. Although production of coal has declined in recent years, 

Oklahoma coal has qualities that are useful in making coke, and a 

continuing demand for coal for this purpose may be expected. In 

1952, about 45 percent of the total Oklahoma production was thus 

used in Texas, Utah, and California. Keserves of low- and mediumvolatile bituminous coal, which have particular usefulness in the 

manufacture of coke, are concentrated in Haskell and Le Flore 

Counties. The distribution of the estimated remaining reserves by 

rank, county, and coal bed is summarized in table 2, and these and 

other relationships are shown graphically in figures 38 and 39.

The complete distribution of the estimated remaining reserves by 

county, bed, rank, overburden thickness, bed thickness, and reliability 

category is shown in table 8 (p. 372). Table 7 (p. 371) serves as an 

index to table 8 and shows the bed and rank of coal occurring in each 

county.

A small percentage of Oklahoma's coal reserves occurs in thick beds 

(fig. 385), and a large percentage occurs under 1,000 to 3,000 feet of 

overburden (fig. 38C"). This is a direct result of the mode of occurrence of the coal beds of Oklahoma, but the unusually small percentage of coal in thin beds (fig. 385) and in the inferred-reserves

425537 57 2
310 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

K

r A w A

Shaded areas show coverage of geologic maps accompanying the following 

reports: 

1. Oakes, 1940

2. Oakes, 1952

3. Oakes, 1944

4. Dunham and Trumbull, 1955

5. Wilson and Newell. 1937

6. Hendricks, 1937*

7. Knechtel, 1937

8. Dane, Rothrock,and WiHIams, 1938

9. Hendricks, 1939

10. Oakes and Knechtel, 1948 

.11 Knechtel, 1949

High-volatile volatile Low-volatile |

bituminous S bitumin-* bituminous

B location of a small deposit 

of coal in Carter County

FIGURE 37. Map of the coal-bearing parts of Oklahoma showing, rank of>.coal*and areas

covered by detailed geologic reports.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 311

PERCENT 

100

BILLIONS OF 

SHORT TONS

90- 

80- 

70- 

60 - 

50 - 

40 - 

30 

20 

10 - 

0

DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING 

TO RA'NK

High-volatile Medium- Low-volatile

bituminous volatile bituminous

bituminous

PERCENT 

100

BILLIONS OF 

SHORT TONS

90- 

80- 

70 - 

60 - 

50 - 

40 - 

30- 

20 - 

10 - 

0

DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO 

THICKNESS OF OVERBURDEN

0-1000 ft 2000-3000 ft 

1000-2000 ft

PERCENT 100-

BILLIONS OF 

SHORT TONS

90- 

80- 

70- 

60- 

50- 

40- 

30- 

20- 

10- 

0

PERCENT 

100.1 

90- 

80- 

70- 

60- 

50- 

40- 

30- 

20- 

10- 

0

DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO 

THICKNESS OF COAL BED

B

Thick Intermediate Thin

BILLIONS OF 

SHORT TONS

DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO 

RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF 

RELIABLE INFORMATION 

AVAILABLE FOR MAKING 

ESTIMATES

D

Measured Indicated

coal coal

reserves reserves

Inferred

coal 

reserves

FIGURE 38. Distribution of estimated remaining coal reserves of Oklahoma according 

to categories of (A) rank, (B) thickness of bed, (0) thickness of overburden, andi 

(D) abundance of reliable data.

category (fig. 38Z?) are the result of a combination of the following 

factors:

1. Numerous thin coal beds are present throughout the Oklahoma 

coalfield, and they are especially numerous in northeastern Oklahoma. 

Because these thin beds are less inviting to mining operations, less 

prospecting, mapping, and exploratory work has been done on them 

than on the thicker beds. Because of insufficient data, reserve estimates for many of these beds over broad areas have not been 

prepared, even though some of them are known or thought to be more 

than 14 inches thick at some places.
312 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

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Summary by bed

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Stigler(?)_._. .........

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Lower Hartshorne _ .

Total...............

9.11

16.74

12.51

1.54

3.53

.53

3.93

1.31

3.31

29.67

6.48

10.91 

9.61 

10.37

5.18

124.76

44.34

.24

6.03

4.54

34.75

1.45

25.84 

28.27 

30.75

12.34

188.55

2.34

22.77

26.27

12.93 

70.18 

81.76

17.42

233.67

9.11

16.74

56.85

1.54

.24

11.93

.53

3.93

1.31

3.31

34.21

64.00

27.72

49.68 

108. 06 

122.88

34.94

546.98

23.68

32.18

25.83

1.01

1.27

34.47

.60

.52

9.85

2.96

5.43

56.20

33.67

.23

60.76 

66.16 

48.66

15.75

419. 23

77.76

.15

41.77

1.04

3.24

.33

.86

189. 37

48.28

30.75 

126. 82 

76.34

37.51

634.22

1.30

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40.97

71.08

52. 47 

179. 92 

114. 56

89.07

549.99

23.68

32.18

103. 59

1.01

1.42

77.54

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.52

1.66

13.09

2.96

5.76

57.06

264. 01

119. 59

143. 98 

372. 90 

239.56

142. 33

1, 603. 44

16.01

52.23

25.89

1.61

.79

65.91

.07

2.69

41.29

4.76

7.11

62.76

100. 30

38.31

30.68 

88.20 

86.85

1.57

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COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 315

2. Furthermore, some of the coal beds for which it has been possible 

to calculate reserve estimates are known at many places to be thinner 

than the 14-inch minimum bed thickness established as a lower cutoff 

point for inclusion in this reserve estimate. This knowledge has in 

general prevented the construction of large semicircular areas of inferred reserves that might otherwise have been based on the observed 

thicknesses of more than 14 inches. Examples of this may be seen on 

the map of the Broken Arrow and Dawson beds, plate 17. Several 

of the areas of reserves shown there might have established the 

presence of much larger areas of inferred reserves had it not been 

known that the coal bed was thinner than 14 inches between them.

3. In much of the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield, welldeveloped large-scale folding (fig. 41) has resulted in large portions 

of the thicker coal beds being below the 3,000-foot overburden limit of 

this estimate. In addition to making the total reserve estimate low, 

that fact has acted differentially to reduce the amount of inferred 

reserves in the estimate, and also the amount of coal in the thin, and 

intermediate thickness categories. This is because the known presence 

of thick coal along and behind the outcrop is usually the reason for 

including in a reserve estimate very large amounts of coal in the inferred-reserve category at some distance behind the outcrop. These 

inferred reserves of coal, usually judged in the absence of specific 

information to be thinner than that along the outcrop, have to some 

extent been omitted from this estimate because they are more than 

3,000 feet below the surface.

The estimate of the coal reserves of Oklahoma presented in this 

report is much smaller than the previously accepted total figure. The 

reasons for this difference are discussed in detail under "Comparison 

with other estimates." In general, it may be said that much of the 

information about the location, thickness, and extent of coal beds in 

Oklahoma that was used in the preparation of this report was not 

available when the earlier estimate was prepared. Thus the previous 

estimate was necessarily based to a large extent on assumptions about 

the thickness and continuity of the coal beds. The present estimate 

has been based more directly and conservatively on known measurements, and no estimates have been included for several areas where 

information is still meager or lacking.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Most of the basic information used in the preparation of this summary report was taken from recent detailed publications of the U. S. 

Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey. The titles 

and the areas covered by these detailed reports are shown in figure 37. 

Additional information was obtained from many older published
316 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

reports and from unpublished manuscript material, files, and openfile reports of the two organizations. The Henryetta mining district 

in southern Okmulgee County was mapped in detail in connection 

with this study. The present report includes data derived from that 

investigation, though the complete report on the Henryetta district is 

published separately (Dunham and Trumbull, 1955).

Much detailed information derived from measurements on the outcrop and in mines and drill holes was obtained from independent 

geologists, mining engineers, and officials of mining companies operating in the State. The work of Dr. Carl C. Branson, of the University of Oklahoma, and a number of graduate students working 

under his direction was the only source of information about the 

geology and coal beds of a major part of northeastern Oklahoma. 

In addition, some of the statistical and analytical material included 

is taken from publications of the U. S. Bureau of Mines and the 

Department of Chief Mine Inspector, State of Oklahoma.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many individuals and organizations contributed time, information, 

and advice during the preparation of this report. Independent mining engineers and representatives of nearly all the coal-mining 

companies operating in the State generously permitted the use of 

mine maps, drill-hole data, and other information. Their names are 

too numerous to list here, but their cooperation was invaluable. 

Particular thanks for information and cooperation are due to Dr. C. C. 

Branson, director, and Malcolm C. Oakes and John H. Warren, of 

the Oklahoma Geological Survey, at Norman; and to H. B. Lindeman 

and A. M. Dinsmore, of the U. S. Geological Survey, at McAlester.

Graduate Students whose theses on file at the library of the University of Oklahoma have provided information on northeastern Oklahoma include E, B, Austin, L, P, Chrisman, C. D. Claxton, B. K.

Crumpley, Clarence Lohman Jr., J. T. Lontos, F. R. Stewart, and J.

L. Tillman.

METHODS OF ESTIMATING RESERVES

-A_ny estimate of the coal reserves of a large area is necessarily based

On many assumptions as to the thickness, extent, and correlation of 

the coal beds. Such an estimate is of value to the reader only to

the extent that the definitions and procedures used are explained and

UnderStOOd. and it IS Of value for comparison with, estimates for other

areas only if these definitions and procedures are as similar to those

used in other estimates as local conditions will permit. The criteria 

and methods used in preparing this report are briefly described below. 

They are similar to those used in other State summaries recently 

published by the Geological Survey.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 317

CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COAL

Characteristics considered in calculating coal reserves are the rank 

of the coal, the weight of the coal, the thickness of the coal beds, and 

the thickness of the overburden.

Rank ,of coal. In the United States the rank of coal is determined 

according to the standard classification of the American Society for 

Testing Materials, which is reproduced as table 3. Oklahoma coal, 

except for a small amount of lignite of Cretaceous age in Cimarron 

County, at the extreme west end of the panhandle of the State, ranges 

in rank from high-volatile C bituminous to low-volatile bituminous. 

The amount and proportion of each rank of coal in the State are 

shown in figure 38A.

TABLE 3. Classification of coals by rank

Class Group Limits of fixed carbon or Btu 

mincral-matter-free basis

Requisite physical 

properties

I. Anthracitic-----. 1. Meta-anthracite.

2. Anthracite......

II. Bituminous»....

III. Subbituminous.

IV. Lignitic.

3. Semianthracite ..

1. Low-volatile bituminous coal.

2. Medium-volatile bituminous coal.

3. High-volatile A bituminous coal.

4. High-volatile B bituminous coal.

5. High-volatile C bituminous coal.

1. Subbituminous A 

coal.

2. Subbituminous B 

coal.

3. Subbituminous C 

coal.

1. Lignite............

2. Brown coal.........

Dry F. C., 98 percent or more (dry 

V. M., 2 percent or less).

Dry F. C., 92 percent or more and 

less than 98 percent (dry V. M., 

8 percent or less and more than 

2 percent).

Dry F. C., 86 percent or more and 

less than 92 percent (dry V. M., 

14 percent or less and more than 

8 percent).

Dry F. C., 78 percent or more and 

less than 86 percent (dry V. M., 

22 percent or less and more than 

14 percent).

Dry F. C., 69 percent or more and 

less than 78 percent (dry V. M., 

31 percent or less and more than 

22 percent).

Dry F. C., less than 69 percent 

(dry V. M., more than 31 percent); and moist« Btu, 14,000« 

or more.

Moist« Btu, 13,000 or more and 

less than 14,000.s Moist Btu, 11,000 or more and less 

than 13,000.« Moist Btu, 11,000 or more and less 

than 13,000.5 Moist Btu, 9500 or more and less 

than ll,000.s Moist Btu, 8300 or more and less 

than 9500 s Moist Btu, less than 8300... ___.

Moist Btu, less than 8300...;__.

Nonagglomerating.s

Either agglomerating 

or nonweathering.o

Both weathering and 

nonagglomerating.

Consolidated. 

Unconsolidated.

Legend: F. C. = Fixed carbon. V. M. = Volatile matter. Btu = British thermal units.

1 This classification does not include a few coals which have unusual physical and chemical properties and 

which come within the limits of fixed carbon or Btu. of the high-volatile bituminous and Subbituminous 

ranks. 'All of these coals either contain less than 48 percent dry, mineral-matter-free fixed carbon or have 

more than 15,500 moist, mineral-matter-free Btu.

2 If agglomerating, classify in low-volatile group of the bituminous class.

8 It is recognized that there may be noncaking varieties in each group of the bituminous class.

4 Moist Btu refers to coal containing its natural bed moisture but not including visible water on the 

surface of the coal.

* Coals having 69 percent or more fixed carbon on the dry, mineral-matter-free basis shall be classified 

according, to fixed carbon, regardless of Btu.

^ Tiere are three varieties of coal in the high-volatile C bituminous coal group, namely, Variety 1, agglomerating and nonweathering; Variety 2, agglomerating and weathering; Variety 3, nonagglomerating 

and nonweathering.

., 425537 57- 3
318 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

The reserve estimates contained in this report have been calculated 

separately for coals of high-volatile bituminous, medium-volatile 

bituminous, and low-volatile bituminous ranks. The approximate 

position of the lines dividing coal of these three ranks is shown in 

figure 37. These lines were located by first plotting the sources of all 

samples for which reliable analyses were available on a base map at 

a scale of 1 inch=2 miles. Next, the percentage of fixed carbon as 

determined by each of these analyses was converted from the asreceived basis to the dry, mineral-matter-free basis by the use of the 

approximation formula (American Society for Testing Materials, 

1939, p. 5), and the resulting values were plotted at the proper points 

on the base map. Contouring of these numerical values, employing 

detailed mathematical interpolation, established the rank boundaries 

shown in this report. This determination, though by no means accurate in detail or final, and subject to revision as new analyses are 

made, is thought to be the best possible on the basis of analyses now 

available.

Most of the analyses used in the rank determination were made by 

the U. S. Bureau of Mines after February 1913, and bear sample 

numbers higher than 16,100; analyses made before that time and 

bearing lower sample numbers were not made under strictly uniform 

conditions. Some of the analyses made by the Oklahoma Geological 

Survey in cooperation with the School of Chemical Engineering of 

the University of Oklahoma (Moose and Searle, 1929) were used for 

mines or localities where no Bureau analyses were available. No 

analysis was used if there was doubt as to the exact location of the 

point sampled, and no attempt was made to determine the boundaries 

of subranks within the high-volatile bituminous rank. Analytical data 

were used irrespective of the bed from which the analyzed sample 

was taken; beds for which no analyses were available were considered to be of the rank indicated by analyses of other nearby beds.

For purposes of dividing the reserve estimate into rank categories, 

the curved lines dividing the three ranks of coal were approximated

by a series of straight lines, which often coincided with the nearest 

township boundary line. Little real inaccuracy is introduced by this 

approximation, for the points between which the exact position of

the dividing lines was interpolated were usually several miles apart.

Weight of coal. Coal in Oklahoma was assumed to have a specific

gravity of L32, which corresponds to a weight of 1,800 tons per acre

foot. This figure accords closely with the average specific gravity of

bituminous coal with low to moderate ash elsewhere in the United 

States. 

Thickness of beds. In order to present as much detailed information as possible, the estimates of coal reserves in this report follow
*" COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 319

Geological Survey practice in being separated into three bed-thickness groups, designated thin, intermediate, and thick. For bituminous coal, beds 14 to 28 inches thick are classed as thin, those from 

28 to 42 inches are classed as intermediate, and those more than 42 

inches are classed as thick. The amount and proportion of the coal 

resources of Oklahoma that falls within each of these bed thickness 

categories are shown in figure 385. Although coal beds less than 14 

inches thick have been mined on a very small scale in Oklahoma, there 

are no data for estimating the minable reserves of this thin coal.

Thickness of overburden. The coal reserve estimates in this report 

are further divided into 3 categories according to whether the thickness of the overburden on the coal is less than 1,000 feet, 1,000 to 

2,000 feet, or 2,000 to 3,000 feet. Coal at depths greater than 3,000 

feet is not included. The occurrence of known coal reserves at depths 

greater than 1,000 feet in Oklahoma is limited to the folded southern 

part of the Oklahoma coalfield. As several of the available detailed, 

geologic reports on parts of this southern area include structure contour maps, the locations of the lines bounding coal in the three overburden categories were readily and accurately determined for much 

of the area by comparing these maps with topographic maps. The 

amount and proportion of Oklahoma coal that falls within each of 

the overburden-thickness categories are shown in figure 38(7.

Preparation of a separate estimate of strippable coal reserves of 

Oklahoma has not been attempted, because the detailed information 

that is required to determine whether or not a part of a coal bed can 

be mined economically by stripping methods is lacking. More than 

half of the coal produced in the State each year since 1942 has been 

mined by this method, however.

CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO ABUNDANCE OF RELIABLE DATA

Coal reserve estimates of the Geological Survey are divided into 

three categories termed "measured," "indicated," and "inferred," according to the abundance of reliable data on which they are based.

Measured reserves are those for which tonnage is computed from 

measurement at outcrops and in mine workings and drill holes. The 

points of observation are so closely spaced and the thickness and extent of the coal so well defined that the computed tonnage may be 

considered to be within 20 percent or less of the true tonnage. Although the spacing of points of observation necessary to demonstrate 

continuity of coal varies in different regions according to the 

character of the coal beds, structural conditions, and other factors, 

the points of observation are in general less than half a mile apart.

Indicated reserves are those for which tonnage is computed partly
320 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

from specific measurements and partly from projections of visible 

data for a reasonable distance on geologic evidence. In general the 

points of observation are a maximum of about 1 mile apart, but they 

may be as much as iy2 miles apart for beds of known continuity.

Inferred reserves are those for which quantitative estimates are 

based largely on a broad knowledge of the coal bed or region and 

for which there are few, if any, measurements. The estimates are 

based on an assumed continuity of the coal bed for which there is 

good geologic evidence. In general, inferred coal lies more than 

2 miles from the outcrop. The outer limit of a block of inferred 

coal was determined according to the assumptions outlined in a succeeding section entitled, "Methods of recording data and making 

calculations."

DISTINCTION BETWEEN ORIGINAL, REMAINING, AND 

RECOVERABLE RESERVES

The reserve estimates of coal in this report are given in terms of 

both original and remaining reserves as of January 1, 1953 (see table 

1). Original reserves are reserves of coal in the ground before the 

beginning of mining operations; in their calculation no allowance 

need be made for production or for mining losses. Remaining reserves are those remaining in ttie ground available for mining, as of 

a certain date, and are obtained by subtracting from original reserves 

the production, losses, and coal rendered unminable up to that date.

The minedrout areas of each coal bed were plotted on the work 

maps used in preparing this estimate, as were the areas of coal that 

will probably be left in barrier pillars around abandoned mines when 

mining is resumed in the future. By measuring separately the remaining coal and the amount of coal mined out and left in barrier 

pillars, an estimate of the total amount of coal originally present 

(original reserves) was prepared. This process also yielded estimates

of coal in each bed remaining.in the ground for future mining as of 

January 1,1953 (remaining reserves).. Although the mined-out areas 

in each coal bed are imperfectly known, just as the exact thickness 

and extent of each of the cosil beds are imperfectly known, the tonnage figures for mined-out areas, including barrier pillars, are probably within 20 percent of the true figures, and the estimates may

therefore be Considered tO be as accurate as the measured-reserve 

category.

Only a part Of the remaining reserves can be recovered, owing to 

losses incident to future mining. These recoverable reserves cannot 

be calculated exactly, but they can be approximated by applying to 

remaining reserves an estimate of future recoverability percentage. 

For the United States as a whole, roughly 50 percent of the coal in
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 321

the ground is recovered, and 50 percent is left underground in pillars, 

as layers in the floor and roof, and in flooded, caved, and abandoned 

areas (Averitt, Berry hill, and Taylor, 1953, p. 12). In the Henryetta 

mining district the recoverability in underground mining has been 

50.5 percent (Dunham and Trumbull, 1955), but it has averaged only 

39 percent in Oklahoma as a whole (p. 36Y). For convenience, the 

recoverable reserves of Oklahoma may be regarded as roughly 40 

percent of remaining reserves, although it is apparent that this performance is exceeded in many individual operations, and that with 

widespread introduction of improved mining practices, a higher overall average recoverability could be obtained for the State.

METHODS OF RECORDING DATA AND MAKING CALCULATIONS

The tonnage estimates in this report were calculated and are presented by individual beds, using counties as areal units. Work maps 

on a scale of 2 inches=1 mile (1: 31,,680) were prepared from published 

topographic maps, and the outcrop of each coal bed was traced onto 

a separate set of these maps. All measured sections, drill-hole 

measurements, mine information, and .other data pertaining to a coal 

bed were then plotted on the individual work maps. On the basis of 

this information, isopach lines were drawn to divide the coal into 

three thickness ranges; the areas of measured-, indicated-, and inferredreserve categories were established on the basis of the spacing and 

reliability of the data; areas of coal under each of the three overburden 

ranges were delineated; and the lines bounding coal of different ranks 

were added.

The thickness of the coal in each area thus delineated was obtained 

by taking a weighted average of all thickness figures from mine and 

outcrop measurements and from drill-hole logs. The thicknesses used 

were the actual measured thicknesses of the coal bed excluding partings more than three-eighths inch .thick, unless the partings exceed 

half the thickness of the coal bed, in which case the coal was not included in the estimate.

The lateral extent of the coal beds was determined by the extent of 

the known outcrop and by drill-hole and mine data. Each length 

of outcrop throughout which the coal was known to be thicker than 

14 inches was considered to establish the presence of coal in a semicircular area back from the outcrop having a radius of one-half the 

length of the outcrop, unless drill-hole or mine data or known variability of the coal bed indicated that this semicircle should be extended 

or restricted.

Because of the scarcity or lack of information on bed thickness in 

areas where the coal is classed in the indicated- and inferred-reserve 

categories, the assumption was made that each coal bed decreases
322 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

regularly in thickness in all directions from areas or points of known 

thickness and at a rate generally equal to the average amount of 

thickening or thinning of the bed demonstrated by thickness measurements nearby.

The conservative viewpoint of these assumptions of semicircular 

extent and decreasing thickness is a large factor in accounting for the 

difference between the total figure given in this report for the coal 

resources of the State, and the larger figure that has been accepted 

heretofore.

The areas outlined on the work maps by the procedures described 

above were measured with a planimeter to obtain the acreage underlain 

by coal in the different thickness, reserve, overburden, and rank categories within each township. In areas of steeply dipping coal in the 

folded southern part of the coalfield, the acreage as measured by the 

planimeter was increased by a small factor to take into account the 

presence of more than 1 acre of coal under one surface, or horizontal, 

acre. The tonnage was then calculated by multiplying together the 

number of acres, the weighted average thickness of the coal to the 

nearest whole inch, and the factor 150, which is considered to be the 

weight of an acre-inch of bituminous coal in the ground. This calculation was performed by electrically operated punched-card equipment, which was also used to sort and total the data according to 

various reserve categories.

The calculating machines were set to carry all figures to the nearest 

10,000 tons, primarily to insure the preservation and incorporation 

of figures for the smaller areas. The detailed tables contained in 

this report thus give totals rounded to the nearest 10,000 tons, which 

unintentionally implies an order of accuracy that is not justified by 

the means used to obtain the figures.

STATUS OF BASIC INFORMATION AND AREAS EXCLUDED FROM

ESTIMATE

In common with most of the large coalfield areas in the United

States, the Oklahoma coalfield has been only partly explored and 

mapped. (See fig. 37.) The following is a general statement of 

the status of basic information on the occurrence of Oklahoma coal. 

Through the work of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, both published (Oakes, M. C., 1940, 1944, 1952) and unpublished, detailed 

mapping and thickness measurements are available for much of the 

extent Of the Dawson, Croweburg (Broken Arrow), and Iron Post 

coal beds in northeastern Oklahoma; but there are extensive areas, 

to the east of the outcrop of the Croweburg bed, in Nowata, Craig,

Ottawa, Eogers, Mayes, and Wagoner Counties, where coal that is 

known to occur in many relatively thin beds has been mined on a
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 323

commercial scale, but where the outcrops of the coal beds .have not 

been mapped, nor adequate thickness measurements been made. For 

these reasons it was concluded during the preparation of this report 

that no reasonably accurate estimate of the reserves in these thin 

beds was possible.

Large areas between the Arkansas and the Canadian Rivers are 

also as yet inadequately mapped. The Henryetta-Morris mining 

area in Okmulgee County has been mapped in detail, but the northward extent of the Henryetta and Morris coal beds into northeastern 

Okmulgee County is not well known. Western Muskogee County 

and nearly all of Mclntosh County are not mapped in sufficient detail.

Detailed and recent surface geologic maps, and their accompanying 

geologic reports, in which are compiled much information from 

mining and drilling, cover most of the southern part of the Oklahoma 

coal field. They have contributed greatly to the accuracy and detail, 

as well as the amount, of the reserve estimates in this report. The 

coal deposits of Sequoyah County, however, from which there has 

been large production by strip-mining methods in recent years (see 

table 6), were not adequately mapped at the time this report was 

prepared.

Only the status of surface mapping and measurement is discussed 

above. Information about thickness and extent of beds underground 

away from the outcrop is limited, in northeastern Oklahoma and in 

the area between the Arkansas and Canadian Eivers, almost entirely 

to very shallow holes drilled near the outcrops of coal beds to delineate areas of coal that can be economically strip mined. Information on the occurrence of coal at depths greater than 100 feet is almost 

entirely lacking there. Two outstanding exceptions, and good examples of the effectiveness of deep exploratory drilling for coal, are 

the Henryetta coal field, where six diamond-drill holes about 600 

feet deep have revealed that coal of minable thickness extends over 

many square miles; and an area in northern Craig County, where 

core drilling has disclosed the presence of minable coal at a depth 

of several hundred feet, though no indication of its presence can be 

gained from the surface outcrops of the same strata to the east. The 

 drilling in both of the areas mentioned was done many years ago. 

The assumption is that further deep-test drilling for coal might very 

possibly bring to light further extensive deposits of minable coal in 

northeastern Oklahoma as well as in other parts of the coalfield.

A relatively large amount of deep drilling specifically for information on coal beds has been done in the southern part of the Oklahoma 

coalfield, and the results have materially increased the amount of 

coal known to be present there; but a vastly greater amount of such 

exploration is necessary for an adequate knowledge of the coal deposits.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

The areas on anticlines back from the outcrops where the McAlester 

and Hartshorne coal beds are brought near enough to the surface to be 

reached by shafts are of particular interest as mining possibilities, if 

the coal can be shown to be present in beds of adequate thickness! ;

Although many test wells have been drilled for oil and gas in ttie 

coal-bearing region of Oklahoma, the thickness of the coal beds is 

-rarely stated in the drill logs, and where coal is noted, the recorded 

thickness is unreliable. Records of oil- and gas-drilling operations 

were not used as a basis for estimating coal reserves in this report.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER ESTIMATES

CAMPBELL ESTIMATE

The Only previous estimate of the coal resources of Oklahoma as 

a' whole is that prepared under the direction of M. R. Campbell in 

the years before 1928, and recently reprinted by Averitt, Berryhill, and 

Taylor (1953, tables 1 and 2). Campbell estimated the original coal 

reserves of the State at 54,951 million tons, a figure far higher than 

the 3,673-million-ton estimate of this report. A detailed comparison 

of the two estimates is shown in table 4.

TABLE 4. Comparison of past and present estimates of the original coal reserves

of Oklahoma

Bed .

AU beds. .............................

Total--....... . ..... .

Campbell estimate

Assumed 

extent 

(square 

miles)

Assumed 

average 

thickness 

(inches)

Tonnage (in 

thousands 

of short 

tons)

Percent 

of total

Present report

Tonnage (in 

thousands 

of short 

tons)

Percent 

of total

Area south of Sequoyah County and Canadian River

14, 817, 041 27 2, 926, 980 80

Area north of Canadian River, including Sequoyah County

1,692

9,324 

6,148

27 

30 

18

4, 385, 664 

26, 853, 120 

8, 895, 744

40, 134, 528

54, 951, 569

8 

49

16

73

100

81, 080 

433, 920

230, 840

i 745, 840

3,672,820

2 

12 

6

20

100

1 Estimate includes only a part of northeastern Oklahoma. See text.

Campbell estimate was made with the same cutoff points as the

present estimate, namely a minimum bed thickness of 14 inches and a 

maximum overburden thickness of 3,000 feet, and employed the same

figure of 1,800 tons for the estimated weight of an acre-f oot of bituminous coal in the ground, but none of the detailed geologic reports (see 

list, fig. 37) and only a part of the results of the exploratory drilling
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 325

upon which the estimates in the present report are primarily based were 

in existence when the early estimate was prepared. The use of this 

wealth of information in the preparation of the present report has 

made possible an estimate based entirely and conservatively on known 

measurements and has resulted in a minimum rock-bottom estimate 

that includes no assumptions or tonnage figures for vast areas of coalbearing land in the State for which information is still inadequate or 

entirely lacking. When the earlier estimate was made it was necessary 

to make estimates and statistical allowance for the continuity in extent 

and thickness of the coal beds in order to produce a workable total 

figure.

In the preparation of the Campbell estimate, for instance, the Henry - 

etta and Croweburg (Broken Arrow) beds were correlated (as they 

also are in the present report) and considered as one continuous bed, 

the outcrop of which, in the words of the original notes,

has been traced from the Kansas-Oklahoma State line southwest to beyond 

Henryetta. This bed has been considered as extending south to the Canadian 

River. The coal dips west at 50 feet per mile. It would therefore reach a depth 

of 3,000 feet at 60 miles from the outcrop.

On the map which accompanies the notes from which the above is 

quoted, the Canadian River has been used as the southern boundary of 

the area underlain by coal, and the line labeled "3,000-foot limit of 

Henryetta coal" includes all of Seminole, Creek, and Washington 

Counties, about nine-tenths of Pottawatomie County, more than half 

of Lincoln and Osage Counties, parts of Pawnee and Payne Counties, 

and very nearly all of Nowata, Tulsa, and Okfuskee Counties, in the 

9,324-square-mile area which was considered to be underlain by coal 

in this bed. Over this entire area the bed thickness was considered 

to average 2 feet 6 inches. The area which in the present report is 

considered to have been originally underlain by all categories of reserves in the Henryetta bed is slightly less than 120 square miles, and in 

the Croweburg (Broken Arrow) bed is about 70 square miles. (See 

pi. 17.)

In the Campbell estimate the Dawson coal bed was considered to 

average 2 feet 3 inches in thickness over a 1,692-square-mile area 

bounded by the outcrop extending from a point in T. 15 N., R. 11 E., 

near Beggs, to a point in T. 25 N., R. 15 E., and by a semicircular arc 

which included within the coal area more than one-third of both 

Creek and Osage Counties, a part of Pawnee County, and about half 

of Washington County. In the present report, the area underlain by 

all categories of original reserves in the Dawson coal bed is less than 

50 square miles. (See pi. 17.)

Reserves of coal in northeastern Oklahoma in beds below the Broken 

Arrow coal bed were assumed in the Campbell estimate to be equivalent

425537 57 4
326 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

in amount to those in one bed having an overall average thickness of 18 

inches and an extent of 5,148 square miles; but in the preparation of the 

present report the information available about these beds was considered too fragmentary for estimating anything but an extremely 

small amount of coal in uncorrelated beds in Craig and Rogers 

Counties.

Tonnage calculations based on the three assumptions just mentioned 

account for 73 percent of the total Campbell reserve estimate for the 

State.

The Campbell estimate of the coal reserves of the southern part of 

the Oklahoma coalfield was based on an estimate of the coal reserves 

of the segregated Indian lands (for a discussion of segregated lands, 

see Shannon and others, 1926, p. 102-105) prepared by G. H. Ashley 

before 1910. This estimate, which is printed on pages 91 to 115 of 

U. S. Senate Document 390, was recalculated from the basis of 1,000 

tons per acre-foot on which it was made, to the basis of 1,800 tons 

per acre-foot which is common to both the Campbell estimate and 

the present report. To this figure of 3,5Y3 million tons was then added 

an estimate of 11,244 million tons for coal thought to be present under 

unsegregated land.

In preparing those estimates, a figure for average bed thickness was 

applied uniformly to areas which were often of township size or even 

hundreds of square miles in extent. For example, the area of about 

720 square miles comprising Tps. 7-10 N., Us. 15-19 E., was considered 

to contain coal equal in amount to that in a bed 2 feet thick over the 

entire area, which added 1,658,880,000 tons to the Campbell total. In

the present report, coal reserves in all beds in this area total only 107,-

410,000 tons, or 6.5 percent of the above figure.

The availability of structure contour maps has also made it possible, 

in preparing the present report, to locate the 3,000-foot overburden line 

on each coal bed with some degree of accuracy. In many areas this

has eliminated from the present estimate large quantities of coal included in the earlier estimate.

COUPS OF ENGINEERS ESTIMATE

Another estimate of the coal resources of Oklahoma, recently prepared under the auspices of the Corps of Engineers, Department of 

the Army, shows 2,467,094,000 tons of coal in place, of which 1,251,588,-

000 tons was considered to be recoverable (Corps of Engineers, 1951). 

The Corps of Engineers report was prepared especially for determining areas suitable for the location of synthetic liquid fuel plants. 

It was based on different assumptions and thus is not closely comparable with either the Campbell estimate or the estimates in this report. 

The object of the Corps of Engineers survey was to locate large
, COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 327

blocks of coal in which large-scale mining could be started immediately 

to supply synthetic fuel plants that might be constructed. The Corps' 

estimate of coal reserves includes only coal thicker than 24 inches for 

underground mining and thicker than 12 inches for strip mining; and 

less than 1,500 feet below drainage level for underground mining and 

under less than 200 feet of overburden for strip mining, with additional restrictions as to the thickness ratio of coal bed and overburden. 

The Geological Survey coal reserve estimates are computed for bedthickness ranges of 14 to 28,28 to 42, and more than 42 inches; and for 

overburden thickness ranges of less than 1,000,1,000 to 2,000, and 2,000 

to 3,000 feet. The Corps of Engineers total figure is thus roughly comparable to this report's estimate of reserves in beds thicker than 28 

inches and within 1,000 feet of the surface.

ARKANSAS ESTIMATE

The 14,550-square-mile Oklahoma coalfield is estimated to have contained original coal reserves of 3,673 million short tons, whereas a similar investigation (as yet unpublished) of the 1,700-square mile Arkansas coalfield resulted in an original reserve estimate of 2,265 million 

short tons. The contrast between a ratio of areas of 8.5 to 1 and a ratio 

of original reserves of 1.6 to 1 is in part due to the effect on the estimate 

of such factors as the geological mode of occurrence of the coal beds 

and the relative amount of available information about the coal beds.

The coal beds in Arkansas have gentle dips, are less than 3,200 feet 

deep, and can be correlated by surface mapping or stratigraphic similarity on opposite sides of synclines. These three factors plus abundant data on the thickness of the coal act to increase the total estimate of 

reserves there.

THE OKLAHOMA COALFIELD

GENERAL INFORMATION

The main coal-bearing area of Oklahoma is located in the northeastern and east-central parts of the State, and has a maximum northsouth extent of about 185 miles and a maximum east-west extent of 

about 110 miles. The total area underlain by coal-bearing rocks is 

about 14,550 square miles, or roughly 21 percent of the total area of 

the State; coal is present at the surface in more than 17 counties. The 

general location of the coal-bearing areas is shown on the index map, 

figure 37.

The coal-bearing rocks of eastern Oklahoma are continuous with 

those of Arkansas on the east and of Kansas on the north, and the 

coalfields of these three States, together with those of Missouri, Iowa, 

and Nebraska, form the Western region of the Interior province, one
328 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

of the major areas of coal occurrence in the United States. Boundaries of the Oklahoma coalfield other than those formed by the Arkansas and Kansas State lines are the older rocks elevated by the Ozark 

uplift on the northeast, the faults and folds of the Ouachita Mountains 

on the south, and the younger, non-coal-bearing rocks on the west.

The coal-bearing area of eastern Oklahoma, commonly referred to 

as the Oklahoma coalfield, contains very nearly all the coal in the State, 

but a few relatively small deposits of coal are known in other parts of 

the State. One or more coal beds are known to occur in rocks of 

Pennsylvanian age in Carter County, just south of the Arbuckle 

Mountains in the south-central part of the State; and a thin impure 

bed of lignite is present in rocks of Cretaceous age in Cimarron 

County, at the extreme western end of the panhandle of the State, 

near the New Mexico border. These occurrences of coal outside the 

main Oklahoma coalfield are more fully discussed in a succeeding 

section of this report. Because they are extremely small in size and 

are inadequately known, no reserve estimates for these areas are given 

in this report.

The Oklahoma coalfield can be divided naturally into northern and 

southern parts which are of about equal extent, but which differ in 

structure and topography. The dividing line can be considered to 

be the Canadian River and the part of the Arkansas Biver below their 

confluence.

The northern part of the Oklahoma coalfield lies in the Osage 

Plains section of the Central Lowland physiographic province. The 

land surface there as for the most part flat lying or gently rolling 

plains of low relief formed on the thick shale beds that predominate 

in the geologic section. Those low plains are interrupted by widely 

spaced low rounded eastward-facing cuestas which trend generally 

northeast-southwest, parallel to the regional strike, and are formed

by resistant but relatively thin limestone and sandstone beds in the 

section. Elevations range from slightly less than 500 feet above

sea level in the lower parts of the major river valleys to about 1,000 

feet On the highest hillS. TWO hundred to 250 feet of relief in a short

distance is common on the eastward side of the cuestas and on the 

outlier hills caused by the more resistant of the sandstone and limestone beds, and also where hills and cuestas are cut through by the 

major streams. Over most of the area the local relief is less than this.

Near to and south of the Arkansas River there is a rather pronounced

southward increase in the relative amount of sandstone in the coalbearing part of the geologic section, with the result that near the 

boundary between the two parts of tne Oklahoma coalfield the land 

surface becomes in places hillier than it is farther north. Valleys of
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 329

the major streams are generally wide, sand clicked, and slightly 

entrenched.

The southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield for the most part 

coincides closely with the Oklahoma portion of the Arkansas Valley 

section of the Ouachita physiographic province. The structure of 

the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield consists principally of a 

series of eastward- and northeastward-trending folds. Erosion of 

the folded rocks, which are for the most part a repetitive series of 

sandstone and shale beds, has produced a land surface of relatively 

strong relief, characterized by long curving subparallel hogbacks or 

sharp hills that coincide generally with the outcrop of the resistant 

sandstone beds. Between these hills are wide and extensive valleysof low relief, which are formed on the thick shale beds. Where the 

dips are low, the sandstone outcrops form extensive broad areas of 

relatively strong relief, but where the dips are high the sandstone 

outcrops form narrow closely spaced ho'gbacks. The highest land in 

the coalfield occurs along the axes of some of the synclines where 

the flat-lying sandstone beds are most resistant to erosion; in contrast, 

the anticlines often have very little topographic expression. Poteau 

Mountain, whose crest elevation of about 2,530 feet makes it the 

highest point in the Oklahoma coalfield, and Cavanal Mountain, with 

an elevation of more than 2,300 feet, are excellent examples of such 

synclinal erosional features. The lowest point in the Oklahoma 

coalfield is in the valley of the Arkansas River where it leaves the 

State near Fort Smith, Ark.; the'elevation there is less than 400 feet.

The Arkansas River and its tributaries drain all of the Oklahoma 

coalfield except the extreme southwestern part, in Coal, Atoka, and 

southwestern Pittsburg Counties. This small area is drained by 

Muddy Boggy Creek and its tributaries, which flow southward and 

southwestward to join the Red River at the Texas State line.

Nearly all the streams in the Oklahoma coalfield flow in broad 

meanders in wide valleys filled with loose sand and silt, and most of 

the smaller streams flow only intermittently.

Information about the location, adequacy, and quality of water 

supplies for industrial and other uses in Oklahoma is contained in 

a report entitled "Oklahoma water," ^prepared in 1945 for the Oklahoma Planning.and Resources Board by the Water Resources Division of the U. S. Geological Survey.: -. . Temperatures in the Oklahoma i coalfield range from an average 

maximum of 47°F and an average minimum of 28°F in January to 

an average maximum of 92°F and an average minimum of 70°F in 

August. The winters are mild; the summers are hot, with temperatures of more than 100°F occurring on many successive days in July.
330 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

and August. The average annual relative humidity is 66 percent. 

The average annual precipitation in the Oklahoma coalfield ranges 

from 38 inches along the west side of the field to 42 inches in the 

southeastern part of the field.

The population density of the Oklahoma coalfield is about 30 persons per square mile, exclusive of metropolitan areas. Tulsa, 1950 

population 182,740, and Muskogee, 1950 population 37,289, are located within the coalfield and are respectively the second and third 

largest cities in the State, but their growth is not to be attributed 

in great degree to the coal-mining industry. Smaller cities, such as 

McAlester (population 17,878), Henryetta (population 7,987), and 

Poteau (population 4,776), have long been important in the industry 

and owe much of their growth to it.

Many other smaller towns in the area have been important mining 

centers in the past, but the decline in underground mining activity 

in the last 25 years (fig. 43) has reduced their chief means of employment. The growth of strip mining in more recent years has 

tended to reverse this trend somewhat in some of these communities 

and has also increased employment in many small towns in the northern part of the Oklahoma coalfield, where there was little mining 

activity before the advent of large-scale strip mining.

Both the northern and southern parts of the Oklahoma coalfield 

are adequately served by a network of several railroad lines. Largescale mining in the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield started 

immediately upon completion of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad through McAlester in 1872. Similarly, construction of railroad lines through Latimer and Le Flore Counties and other parts 

of the State in succeeding years was followed closely by mining 

development.

Very good highway access to all parts of the Oklahoma coalfield 

is provided by a network of State and Federal highways and by 

many unpaved county and State roads.

STRATIGRAPHY OP THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE OKLAHOMA

COALFIELD

The COal-bearing rOCks Of eastern Oklahoma are of Pennsylvanian 

(Des Moines and Missouri) age, and correspond roughly in age to 

Upper Pottsville, Allegheny, and Conemaugh beds of the eastern 

United States. The names applied to the coal-bearing rocks of 

Oklahoma are shown on plate 16.

The coal-bearing rocks of the southern and northern parts of the

Oklahoma coalfield have been for the most part subdivided differently, 

and different names have to some extent"been given to the formations, 

<even though rocks of the same age occur in both areas.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 331

The southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield is continuous with 

the Arkansas coalfields on the east, and the two areas are known 

jointly as the Arkansas-Oklahoma coal basin. The rocks that crop 

out within this deep structural and depositional coal basin, the western 

part of which is often referred to as the McAlester basin, are of 

Atoka and Des Moines age, and constitute a thick sequence of alternating sandstones and shales and numerous coal beds. The formations 

into which these rocks have been divided are, in ascending order, the 

Atoka formation, the Hartshorne sandstone, the McAlester formation, the Savanna formation, and the Boggy formation. These formations, excluding the Atoka, constitute in this area the newly established (Oakes, 1953) Krebs group; and the Cabaniss group here 

consists of the still higher Thurman sandstone, Stuart shale, and 

Senora formation, which crop out northwest of the McAlester basin 

proper and extend for some distance north of the Canadian River. 

Except for the Atoka, Thurman, and Stuart formations, all of these 

units contain coal beds that have been extensively mined.

ATOKA FORMATION

The Atoka formation underlies the Hartshorne sandstone throughout its extent in Oklahoma. It is exposed south of the long narrow 

continuous outcrop of the Hartshorne sandstone that extends along 

the entire southern boundary of the Oklahoma coalfield, from the 

Lehigh-Atoka area in Coal and Atoka Counties eastward to Arkansas.

The Atoka is also exposed inside the long U-shaped outcrops of the 

Hartshorne sandstone in the Backbone anticline in Le Flore County 

and the Milton anticline in Haskell and Le Flore Counties; along 

parts of the Lone Star anticline in northern Haskell County; and 

east of the outcrop of the Hartshorne sandstone in eastern Muskogee 

County, between the Canadian and the Arkansas Rivers. (The location of the major faults and the traces of the axes of the major 

anticlines and synclines in the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield 

are shown in fig. 41.) The Atoka formation or its correlatives extend 

northward into northeastern Oklahoma at least as far as T. 24 N., 

and until recently they were considered the basal part of the Cherokee 

formation there.

The Atoka formation is about 9,000 feet thick in central Le Flore 

County, in the southeastern corner of the Oklahoma coalfield, and it 

thins rapidly northward and westward, being about 600 feet thick 

in .the Muskogee area. It consists almost entirely of alternating beds 

of sandstone and shale. Coal-forming conditions do not seem to 

have developed until near the end of the time during which the Atoka 

formation was deposited, for only a few thin beds of coal have been
332 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

found in the Atoka, and these are concentrated near the top of the 

formation.

The oldest coal bed known in Oklahoma is the topmost bed of the 

Bloyd shale, just below the base of the Atoka formation. Maximum 

observed thickness of this bed is 0.8 feet in the NEi/4 sec. 20, T. 15 N., 

K. 20 E., Muskogee County, a locality described by C. A. Moore 

(1947, p. 40-42, pi. 7A)-.

HABTSHORNE SANDSTONE

The Hartshorne sandstone is a unit 10 to 300 feet thick, composed 

in some places of nearly pure massive to very irregularly bedded 

quartzose sandstone, and in other places of impure shaly sandstone and 

shale. It is persistent throughout the southern part of the Oklahoma 

coalfield, and the similar persistence over this large area of the Lower 

Hartshorne coal bed that occurs in it marks the first prolonged period 

of coal-forming conditions in the area. The Hartshorne sandstone 

has been mapped northward almost to the latitude of Muskogee, where 

it has thinned to only 10 feet, and its correlatives may or may not 

extend on northward from there.

. Detailed mapping has revealed that the Lower and Upper Hartshorne .coal beds, which are separated by 20 to 70 feet of saiidstorie and 

shale throughout most of the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield, 

converge northward in the vicinity of Bokoshe', Le Flore County, and 

McCurtain,, Haskell County, where the two coal beds join or are separated by only a few inches to a few feet of impurities. Where' the 

two coal beds have joined or are very close together, they are jointly 

referred to as the Hartshorne coal. As : the boundary between 1 the 

Hartshorne .sandstone and. the overlying McAlester formation is 

placed, in Oklahoma usage, within the strata that disappear with the 

coalescence of the two coal beds, the top of the Hartshorne sandstone 

in Haskell County and northern Le Flore County is placed at the top 

of the Upper Hartstone coal bed. As a result, the Upper Hartshorn^ 

coal is included with the Lower Hartshorne coal in the Hartshorne 

ScindstOhe in this area but remains in the overlying McAlester formation elsewhere in the State. (See fig. 40.) .. '.' /'. , . ' ' " 

MCALESTER FORMATION , f

; The McAlester formation is-exposed in a continuous belt on thte north

side of the outcrop of the underlying Hartshorne sandstone along i\i& 

entire SOUthem margin Of the Oklahoma coalfield, from Atoka and 

Lehigh on the west to the Arkansas State line Oil the east, and it IS

exposed at the surf ace in extensive areas in the Brazil anticline in 

northeastern Latimer County and the B'okoshe syncline and a large 

area east of Poteau in northern Le Flore County. It is also exposed
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 333

s.

Hughes, 

Latimer County

McCurtain, 

Haskell County

 UPPER HARTSHORNE COAL 

McAlester formation

HARTSHORNE 

COAL

Atoka formation

LOWER HARTSHORNE COAL 

(Not to scale) After Oakes and Knechtel, 1948, p. 23

FIGURE 40. The Hartshorne sandstone (1) as defined in Haskell County and northern 

Le Flore County, Okla., (2) of general Oklahoma usage, and (3) of Arkansas usage.

over much of Haskell County, and in large but not accurately known 

areas in southern Sequoyah County, north of the Arkansas River. It 

has been mapped in detail in Muskogee County from the Canadian 

River northward to the Arkansas River near Muskogee, and the recent 

application of the formation names of the Krebs group to the rocks 

of northeastern Oklahoma has resulted in the extension of the McAlester formation to the Kansas line.

The McAlester formation is from 1,750 feet to 2,500 feet thick along 

the southern margin of the Oklahoma coalfield, and, like other coalbearing formations in the area, it thins northward and westward, 

being 500 to 700 feet thick, in northern Haskell County and southern 

Muskogee County, and about 200 feet thick at the latitude of Muskogee. The formation continues to thin northward from Muskogee, 

and in northeastern Oklahoma it is represented in the lower part of 

the Cherokee formation as defined in the older geologic literature. 

The lowest named sandstone unit in the McAlester formation is the 

Warner sandstone member, and this name has recently been applied 

to what was previously called the Little Cabin sandstone member in 

northeastern Oklahoma.

Shale makes up most of the McAlester formation, but several named 

sandstone beds and a number of coal beds occur Avithin the formation. 

The shale between the base of the McAlester formation and the Warner 

sandstone member of the McAlester is known as the McCurtain shal& 

member, arid throughout much of the southern part of the Oklahoma,

425537 57 5
334 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

coalfield it contains the thick, extensive, and valuable Upper Hartshorne coal bed. Next above the Warner sandstone member, and separated from it and from each other by shale, are the Lequire and 

Cameron sandstone members. The shale above the Cameron sandstone 

contains the important McAlester (Lehigh) and Stigler coal beds. 

The two next succeeding sandstone beds are the Tamaha and Keota 

sandstone members. Until recently they were in the Savanna formation, but they are now in the McAlester formation as defined by the 

Oklahoma and U. S. Geological Surveys.

SAVANNA FORMATION

The Savanna formation crops out over extensive areas in Coal, 

Atoka, Pittsburg, and northern Latimer Counties, the southern part 

of Haskell County, and northern Le Flore County. It attains a maximum thickness of about 1,750 feet in Le Flore and Atoka Counties, but 

it thins rapidly underground to the west and northwest. Northward 

where it has been mapped as a narrow outcrop through Muskogee 

County it is only 25 to 80 feet thick.

The base of the Savanna formation is now considered by the Oklahoma and U. S. Geological Surveys to be at the base of the Spaniard 

limestone member of the Savanna (pi. 16). The base of the Bluejacket sandstone member of the overlying Boggy formation marks the 

top of the Savanna formation. The Savanna, in common with the 

McAlester, Boggy, and Senora formations, has recently been mapped 

northward to Kansas (Miser, 1954).

For the most part the Savanna formation is composed of alternating 

beds of shale and sandstone. A subordinate amount of limestone is 

present, especially in the more northerly outcrops, and numerous 

thin coal beds, of which the Cavanal is the most important, occur 

in the shale parts of the formation.

BOGGY FORMATION

The outcrop area of the Boggy formation, including the Bluejacket

sandstone member at the base, is more extensive than that of any other 

in the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield. It is exposed in a 

wide arcuate belt from southeastern Pontotoc County and central and

northern Coal County through Pittsbwr-er, western Ho.ske.ll, and McIntosh Counties to northwestern Muskogee County. From here it 

has been mapped northward to the Kansas line. Large outliers of the 

Boggy formation remain in the Sansbois syncline in Haskell and

northern Latimer Counties, where more than 2,000 feet of the forma.-

tion is present, and in the Cavanal syncline in Le Flore County, where 

more than 3,000 feet of rocks in the Boggy formation make up much 

of the mass of Cavanal Mountain.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 335

A complete continuous section of the Boggy in Pittsburg County is 

about 2,850 feet thick, and to the west in Coal County it is 1,250 to 1,500 

feet thick. The formation is also known to become thinner northward 

from Pittsburg County, but its thickness there has not been measured.

Much of the formation is composed of a thick sequence of shale 

beds that are separated by varying numbers of sandstone beds of 

irregular thickness and litholpgic character. The Lower Witteville 

and several other thinner coal beds occur near the bottom of the 

formation at some places, and the higher Secor (Upper Witteville) 

coal bed is present over large areas. The formation also includes a 

limestone unit, the Inola limestone member, which is traceable into 

northeastern Oklahoma.

THURMAN, STUART, AND SENORA FORMATIONS

The formations next above the .Boggy are the Thurman sandstone, 

the Stuart shale, and the Senora formation, which in this area constitute the Cabaniss group. Neither the Thurman nor the Stuart formation has been reported to contain coal, but the coal beds in the 

Senora formation have been mined extensively near Henryetta and 

Morris in Okmulgee County.

The Thurman sandstone crops out in a strip a few miles wide extending through northern Coal, western and northwestern Pittsburg, 

and western Mclntosh Counties. In northwest Pittsburg County, 

the only place in which recent detailed investigations of this formation and the overlying Stuart shale have been conducted and published, the Thurman is from 290 to 350 feet thick and consists of 

alternating beds of sandstone and shale, with a basal bed of conglomerate or coarse sandstone in many places.

The Stuart shale, which crops out parallel to the Thurman on its 

northwest side, is 315 feet thick in northern Pittsburg County, and 

consists mainly of dark shales and a subordinate amount of sandstone in the middle portion. The Thurman sandstone is currently 

considered not to extend north of the Canadian River; the Stuart 

shale does not extend northward beyond T. 13 N., Rs. 15 and 16 E.

The Senora formation crops out from northeastern Pontotoc 

County northeastward to the Kansas State line. North of T. 13 N. 

it is the only formation in the Cabaniss group. South of the Arkansas 

River the Senora formation, like most of those in the southern part 

of the Oklahoma coalfield, consists of alternate beds of sandstone and 

shale, with a very few thin beds of impure limestone in places. In 

southern Okmulgee County the number and thickness of the sandstone beds decrease markedly in a northward direction (Dunham 

and Trumbull, 1955, pi. 22). In the Coalgate quadrangle, Hughes 

and Pontotoc Counties, the Senora thins southwestward from nearly
336 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

500 feet to less than 150 feet; and in southern Okmulgee County, 

measurements indicate that the upper part of the formation thins 

northward from more than 700 feet to about 400 feet.

Minable coal beds have not been found in the Senora formation 

south of Okmulgee County, nor have they been found in higher strata 

in that area. The Henryetta coal bed has been extensively mined in 

the southern and central parts of Okmulgee County, and the lower 

Morris and Eram coals are present in the Senora formation in the 

east-central part of that county.

From the coalfields of Kansas on the north to their gradual transition into the much thicker section in the coal basin south of the Canadian and Arkansas Kivers, the coal-bearing rocks of northeastern 

Oklahoma crop out in a belt roughly 30 miles wide, strike between 

north and N. 30°, E., and have a low westward dip of 1° to 3° that 

is little interrupted by structural features.

The part of these coal-bearing rocks below the base of the Fort 

Scott limestone corresponds in age to all the formations that were 

described for the southern part of the coalfield. (See pi. 16, which 

shows the relative stratigraphic positions of the coal beds and coalbearing rocks of the Oklahoma coalfield.) Until recently this uniform sequence of thick shale beds and thin sandstone, limestone, 

and coal beds was known in Oklahoma simply as the Cherokee formation, or Cherokee shale; but recent field work has increased our 

knowledge of correlations between the southern and northern parts 

of the Oklahoma coalfield, and on the new edition of the State geologic 

map (Miser, 1954) the terms Krebs group and Cabaniss group are 

applied throughout the coalfield. Formational names from the 

southern part of the coalfield have also been extended through northeastern Oklahoma, with the exception of the Atoka, Hartshorne, 

Thurman, and Stuart formations, which do not extend as far as 

Kansas, In the following paragraphs, the rocks of the Krebs and 

Cabaniss groups and the underlying northerly tongue of tile Atoka

formation are discussed first. 

The rocks above the Fort Scott limestone have been divided into

many formations, and four named COal beds are present, one of them 

in rocks of Des Moines age, and three of them in higher rocks of 

MiSSOUri age; an age not known to be represented by coal beds anywhere else in the State. Of tkese four COal beds Ollly OHB, tllB D<IWSOI1, 

is thick enough or well-enough known SO that estimates Of reserves 

could be prepared for it.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 337 

STRATA BELOW THE FORT SCOTT LIMESTONE

At the base of the coal-bearing section of northeastern Oklahoma, 

a thin northerly extension of the Atoka formation is present between 

the bottom of the Krebs group and the top of the Morrow group. This 

wedge of the Atoka formation is about 600 feet thick in the Muskogee 

area, but probably neither it nor the underlying rocks of Morrow age 

extend as far north as Kansas. The Krebs group therefore lies unconf ormably on rocks of Mississippian age at the Kansas State line.

-The Krebs and Cabaniss groups in northeastern Oklahoma are about 

500 feet thick near the Kansas State line and slightly more than 1,000 

feet 'thick at the latitude of Tulsa. Thick shale beds predominate in 

the section, but several relatively thin units of sandstone and limestone 

have been named and mapped across all or much of the area. Several 

of these units have been correlated with known units in Kansas and 

in the area south of the Arkansas River. The better known of these 

named units, none of which is considered as of formational rank, are, 

from oldest to youngest, the Warner sandstone member of the McAlester formation (until recently known as the Little Cabin sandstone); 

the Spaniard limestone member of the Savanna formation; the Bluejacket sandstone member of the Boggy formation, which has been 

traced from Kansas through northeastern Oklahoma into the 

McAlester basin; the Chelsea sandstone member of the Senora formation, which has been mapped by Oakes (1952, p. 102) southward across 

the Arkansas River; and the Verdigris limestone member of the 

Senora formation, which is correlated with the Ardmore limestone 

member of the Cherokee shale of Kansas.

Numerous thin and to some extent discontinuous coal beds are present in this sequence. The most economically important of these is the 

Croweburg coal bed; but several other beds have been stripped at a 

number of localities throughout the area.

HIGHER ROCKS OF DBS MOINES AGE

Rocks of Des Moines age above the top of the Cabaniss group constitute the Marmaton group. They are divided north of the Arkansas 

River into the Fort Scott limestone at the base; the Labette shale; the 

Oologah limestone, which is made up, in ascending order, of the Pawnee limestone, Bander a shale, and Altamont limestone members; the 

Nowata shale; the Lenapah limestone; and at the top, the Holdenville 

shale. Correlative strata south of the Arkansas River are not known to 

contain coal except in lenses and streaks; they are divided in ascending 

order into the Calvin sandstone, the Wetumka shale, the Wewoka formation, and the Holdenville shale. Shale and limestone predominate 

north of the Arkansas River; shale and sandstone predominate south 

of the Arkansas River. Rocks of the Marmaton group are about 370
FIGURE 41, Generalized map showing location of major faults and 

Oklahoma coalfield.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 339

feet thick at the Kansas State line and about 560 feet thick at the 

latitude of Tulsa. They crop out in a continuous belt, 10 to 20 miles 

wide, on the west side of the outcrops of the Cabaniss group. The only 

coal bed known to occur in these rocks in Oklahoma is a thin southward 

extension of the Lexington coal of Kansas (Cade, 1953, p. 138).

ROCKS OF MISSOURI AGE

The other coal beds in northeastern Oklahoma occur in rocks of 

Missouri age, which lie unconformably on the Holdenville shale 

of Des Moines age. These rocks have been divided into many formations, beginning at the base with the Seminole formation, which contains the important Dawson coal in its lower part. The Seminole formation is composed largely of shale, sandy shale, and sandstone, and is 

more than 200 feet thick slightly north of Tulsa, but only 10 to 20 feet 

thick near Kansas. It crops out in a narrow belt south of Tulsa and 

northward through Tulsa, Washington, Rogers, and Nowata Counties 

(Oakes, 1940, p. 23-26).

The Seminole formation is overlain by the Checkerboard limestone, 

and this in turn by the relatively thick Coffeyville formation, which 

in its upper part includes the thin Cedar Bluff coal, and in its upper 

few feet includes one or more discontinuous coal stringers. Next above 

the Coffeyville are in ascending order the non-coal-bearing Hogshooter 

limestone, Nellie Ely formation, and Dewey formation. These are 

succeeded by the Chanute formation, near the middle of which is a coal 

bed correlated with the Thayer coal of Kansas.

1 The only coal known to occur in stratigraphically higher rocks of 

Pennsylvanian age in the Oklahoma coalfield, or in rocks of Missouri 

age south of the Arkansas River, is in thin lenses and streaks.

STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE OKLAHOMA

COALFIELD

Strong compression from a generally southerly direction was 

exerted upon the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield at some 

time after the deposition of the coal-bearing sediments, with the 

result that throughout that area the beds have been folded into many 

long, narrow anticlines and synclines whose axes tend generally between east and northeast. The location of the axes of the more 

prominent of these folds and of traces of the larger faults is shown 

in figure 41.

The amplitude of the major folding decreases northward. Thus the 

strata in northern Pittsburg and southern Muskogee Counties lie 

in a series of gentle folds, whereas the coal beds and other rocks of 

the southern border of the coalfield have in many places a much higher
340 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

dip, and are vertical or overturned in some localities in Coal, Atoka, 

and Pittsburg Counties near the Choctaw thrust fault.

The Choctaw fault, a northward-thrust fault at the south edge of 

the McAlester basin, extends from Atoka County near the southwestern corner of the coalfield northeastward and eastward into the 

State of Arkansas. Its trace at the surface is commonly considered 

to mark the southern limit of the Oklahoma coalfield, although a narrow band of the Atoka formation, which here is not known to contain 

coal beds, is present between the trace of the fault and the outcrop of 

the Hartshorne sandstone. Thrusting from the south has also been 

observed in conjunction with the Backbone anticline in northern Le 

Flore County and in the Penitentiary and Carbon faults north and 

east of McAlester in Pittsburg County.

After the anticlines and synclines of the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield were formed, the rocks were greatly eroded, with the 

result that a large part of the remaining coal beds is preserved only 

in the synclines. Erosion on anticlines has progressed so far that 

on three, the Savanna anticline in Tps. 3 and 4 N., Es. 13 and 14 E., 

Pittsburg County; the Backbone anticline in northern Le Flore 

County; and the Milton anticline in eastern Haskell and northern 

Le Flore Counties, the entire section of coal-bearing rocks has been 

removed.

The rocks in the synclines are in general more resistant to erosion 

than those in the anticlines when both are at approximately the same 

altitude. Thus the higher and more conspicuous mountains, notably 

Poteau, Cavanal, and Sans Bois in the southeastern part of the coalfield, owe their prominence to the synclinal structure of the rocks that 

form them.

Many small normal faults are also present throughout much of the 

southern part of the coalfield, and they are especially numerous in 

Haskell County. Although these faults are locally of great importance in determining the position of coal bed outcrops, they are too

limited in extent to show in figure 41.

Several large subparallel northeastward-trending faults have caused

the Atoka formation and the lower part of the Krebs group to be

exposed in an irregular pattern of fault blocks on the southwest flank

of a lobe of the Ozark uplift, at the eastern edge of the coalfield in

western and southern Cherokee County and northwestern Sequoyah

County. In the southern half of Sequoyak County, wkere coal beds o±

the Krebs group have been extensively strip mined in recent years,

the rocks are known to be faulted and folded, but detailed geologic

maps of that area have not yet been published.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 341

STRUCTURE OF THE NORTHERN PART OF THE OKLAHOMA

COALFIELD

The overall structural configuration of the northern part of the 

Oklahoma coalfield is far simpler than that of the southern part. The 

coal-bearing rocks throughout this large area have a remarkably uniform gentle westward dip, which is interrupted in only a relatively 

few localities by faults and gentle folds. The strike of the beds ranges 

from north to N. 30° E., and the dip to the west rarely exceeds 300 

feet per mile, or about 3°. It is this very low dip which has made 

widespread strip mining feasible throughout much of northeastern 

Oklahoma. ~

The .Henry etta mining district in. southern Okmulgee County is 

in an area of gentle westward homociinal dips. The HenryettaSchulter faulted anticline is about 4 miles long and occurs in an area 

that was extensively mined by underground methods in the past. This 

structural feature disturbed only an area of a few square miles, and 

mining is being carried out in a large relatively undisturbed area to 

the west.

COAL BEDS IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE OKLAHOMA

COALFIELD

The thickest, most widespread, and most mined coal beds in Oklahoma are in the southern part of the field. Production figures for 

individual beds are not available, but the Lower Hartshorne bed (including the Upper Hartshorne where the two are mined as one in 

eastern Haskell County and parts of northern Le'Flore County) and 

the McAlester bed have alone accounted for perhaps half of the total 

State production. These and several other named coal beds in the 

southern part of the coalfield are shown in the stratigraphic diagrams, 

plate 16 and figure 42, which also indicate their relations with the 

coal beds of northeastern" Oklahoma and the Arkansas coalfield, 

respectively. Further information concerning the names, occurrence, 

equivalence, and workable areas of coal beds in Oklahoma, including 

a complete list of all local names, will be found in a publication of the 

Oklahoma Geological Survey (The Hopper, 1954).

The named coal beds and the more important unnamed or uncorrelated coal beds in the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield are 

discussed briefly below. Averages of the available reliable analyses 

of the beds in each county are shown in table 5.

LOWER HARTSHORNE- COAL BED

The Lower Hartshorne coal bed, the oldest important coal bed in 

Oklahoma and one of the most valuable, lies in the upper part of the

425537 57 6
342

S> x « 

TO 03 O

0

yL

J33J NI '
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 343

Hartshorne sandstone. It crops out the length of the southern boundary of the coalfield, and the horizon at which it occurs is present 

below the surface everywhere in the southern part of the field, except 

for the areas in Pittsburg, Haskell, northern Le Flore, and Sequoyah 

Counties where the coal bed and the overlying sediments have been 

uplifted by faults or anticlines and removed by erosion. Throughout 

much of this area the coal horizon is more than 3,000 feet below the 

surface. The location and classification of the reserves considered to 

be present in the Lower Hartshorne coal bed are shown on the 

generalized bed map, plate 17.

TABLE 5. Averages of analyses of Oklahoma coal by county and bed l 

[All analyses averaged are on the as-received basis]

County and bed

Coal County, Lehlgh bed... ....

Craig County, uncorrelated beds. 

Haskell County:

Stigler bed. 1. ....... ..

Latimer County:

Le Flore County:

Muscogee County, Stigler bed... 

Okmulgee County, Henryetta 

bed............................

Pittsburg County:

Upper Hartshorne bed.. __ 

McAlester bed _ .. ..........

Rogers County:

Sequoyah County, Hartshorne 

bed....-.-......---......--..-.

Tulsa County, Dawson bed.--.. 

Wagoner County:

Uncorrelated bed.. _ .. .

Proximate analysis (percent)

Moisture

6.8 

4.6

3.1 

3.1

4.7 

3.4 

2.5

2.4 

2.9 

2.5 

2.3 

1.7 

2.3

7.1

3.6 

4.5 

3.3 

2.5

8.0 

4.2

5.3

6.2

7.1 

3.9

Volatile 

matter

38.6 

37.5

22.0 

25.4

35.9 

37.1 

 31.6

20.6 

17.8 

21.3 

22.0 

22.1 

30.5

34.5

37.2 

35.4 

36.1 

37.2

31.7 

38.2

16.8. 

36.2

34.7 

36.1

Fixed 

carbon

44! 3 

47.7

68.2 

67.3

53.5 

55.0 

54.2

71.4 

72.3 

66.3 

66.3 

63.0 

60.6

52.8

52.8 

53.7 

55.1 

48.4

55.5 

47.8

72.4 

48.5

51.9 

. 46.3

Ash

10.4 

10.2

6.7 

4.2

5.6 

5.3 

11.7

5.6 

7.1 

10.1 

9!4 

13.3 

6.6

5.6

6.5 

6.5 

5.6 

11.8

4.9 

9.8

5.5 

9.0

6.3 

13.7

Sulfur 

(percent)

3.6

5.6

.9 

1.2

1.4 

1.0 

3.2

1.0 

.8 

4.1 

3.4 

4.3 

3.7

1.6

1.5 

1.5 

.9

5.4

.7 

5.2

1.7 

4.0

2.0 

6.5

Btu

11,590 

12, 750

13,960 

- 14,430"

13, 450 

13, 590

14, 190 

14, 000 

13,700 

 13, 840 

13, 180 

14, 110

12, 910

13, 490 

13,230 

13, 640 

12,880

12,920 

12, 910

13,980 

12,460

12, 780 

12,320

Ashsoftcning 

temperature (»F)

2,180 

- 2,160

2,200 

2,180

2,030 

2,190

2,250 

2,100 

- 2, 340 

2, 410

2,340 

2, 020

2,080 

2,000 

2,210 

2, 240

2,440 

2,160

2,170 

2,020

2,280 

2,080

Number of analyses averaged

23

7

23 

13

21 

11 

1

5 

23 

2 

4 

5 

1

25

39 

6 

59 

3

8 

1

1 

6

17 

1

1 Figures given are simple averages of analyses of mine samples performed by the U. S. Bureau of Mines. 

Analyses of composite samples were not used. Many of the analyses averaged here appear in U. 8. Bur. of 

Mines Tech. Paper 411; others have been published by Dane and others (1938), Hendricks (1937a, 1939), 

Oakes (1944,1952), Knechtel (1937,1949), Oakes and Knechtel (1948), and Dunham and Trumbull (1955); 

others are unpublished. Many other analyses of Oklahoma coal made by the Oklahoma Geological Survey 

in cooperation with the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University of Oklahoma, none of 

which were used to the preparation of this table, will be found in Oklahoma Geol. Survey Bull. 51.

Because these are averages, the proximate analysis figures do not necessarily total 100 percent.

The number of ash-softening temperature determinations averaged is. usually less than the number of 

analyses averaged, because this temperature determination was not performed for all samples.

Data for samples of beds, the names and correlations of which were stated by the sample collector to be 

unknown and which could not be established, are averaged together for Craig County. Devolatilization of 

the coal hi different beds in northeastern Oklahoma can be expected to have progressed roughly the same 

amount, though ash and sulfur contents may of course vary widely between beds and the figures in those 

columns therefore may mean little. Unnamed and uncorrelated beds in the southern part of the coalfield 

were correlated where possible; but where the sampling location description did not permit certain correlation the analysis was disregarded. The samples of uncorrelated beds in Rogers and Wagoner Counties were 

collected in sec. 14, T. 24 N., R. 18 E. and the northeastern part of T. 16 N., R. 16 E., respectively. "Hartshorne bed" refers to both the Lower and Upper Hartshorne beds where they are mined as one bed in Haskell, Sequoyah, and a part of northern Le Flore Counties.
344

The usual range in composition of mine, tipple, and delivered 

samples of the Lower Hartshorne and Hartshorne beds in several 

counties, on the dry-coal or moisture-free basis, is given in the table 

below.

In the Lehigh mining district in Coal and Atoka Counties, the 

Lower Hartshorne coal bed was formerly known as the Atoka coal. 

Its thickness on the west side of the Lehigh syncline reportedly averages 48 inches in the small area where it has been strip mined in T. 2. 

S., R. 10 E. Between this area and the mining district near the 

towns of McAlester and Hartshorne the rocks dip very steeply and are 

highly distorted, and there is little information on the coal bed 

through this distance.

Usual range in composition of Lower Hartshorne and Hartshorne coal 

[Dry-coal or moisture-free basis. Data from U. 8. Bur. Mines, 1946, p. 42, 68]

Volatile matter. .^ __________ .

Fixed carbon ______ '. ..... : ........

Ash.... .... .!.-_ .... _ ._._.

Sulfur ____ __ . _ . ________ .

Btu... .- : .. ... _ -

Counties

Pittsburg

2-6 

34 -40 

49 -66 

6 -12 

.6-3.8 

13, 000-14, 200 

2, 000- 2, 300

Latlmer

2-5 

33 -38 

63 -61 

3-^9 

1.0-1.9 

13,700-14,700

Haskell

2-6 

19 -24 

69 -75 

5 -9 

.6-2.0 

14, 000-14, 800 

2, 100- 2, 400

Le Flore

1-6 

16 -21 

63 -79 

4 -15 

.6- 4.2 

13, 000-15, 000 

1, 900- 2, 400

In the mining areas near the towns of Hartshorne, Wilburton, and 

Howe, and along much of the outcrop from Hartshorne eastward into

Arkansas, the Lower Hartshorne bed ranges in general from 2V2 to 

6 feet in thickness. The dip is the main controlling factor in mining 

in this bed, because in many places where the coal is of minable 

thickness and purity, the dip is too high for economic mining by 

present methods. The bed has been mined intensively in places where 

the dip is low, as along the centers of anticlines and synclines. The

most notable place is the wide bottom of the Hartshorne syncline in 

Tps. 4 and 5 N., Us. 16 and 17 E., where the dip is less than 10° over 

an area of about 10 square miles.

The Lower Hartshorne bed has been extensively prospected and

mined by both underground and strip (Coal Age, 1953a) methods on

the sides of the Milton and Backbone anticlines in northern Le Flore 

and eastern Haskell Counties. The thickness of coal in most of these 

mines is from 2 to 5 feet. In the part of this area north of the heavy

dotted line Oil the bed map, plate 17, the Lower Hartshorne and

upper Hartshorne Ws are so close together that they are generally 

mined as one bed. In the reserve estimates for that area they have 

also been considered as one bed, called for convenience the Hart-
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 345

shorne coal bed. Parts of the Hartshorne bed were formerly known 

as the McCurtain and Panama beds.

The coal of the Lower Hartshorne and Hartshorne beds, in common 

with the other coal beds of the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield, increases progressively in rank from west to east (fig. 37). 

In general, it is of high-volatile bituminous rank in Latimer County 

and westward, of medium-volatile bituminous rank in Haskell County and west of Wister .in Le Flore County, and of low-volatile bituminous rank in the remainder of Le Flore County.

Carbonization studies by the U. S. Bureau of Mines in cooperation 

with the Oklahoma Geological Survey (Davis and Keynolds, 1941, 

1942; Davis and others, 1944) have demonstrated that blends of 

low-volatile bituminous coal from the Hartshorne bed in northern 

Le Flore County with high-volatile bituminous coal from the McAlester and Henryetta beds can be coked in byproduct ovens to produce satisfactory blast-furnace coke. Large amounts of mediumvolatile bituminous coal mined from' the Hartshorne bed near 

McCurtain, Haskell County, and low-volatile bituminous coal from 

the same bed in Le Flore County have been shipped to Texas, Utah, 

and California for blending with high-volatile bituminous coal'to 

make metallurgical coke.

The detailed reserve estimates presented in table 8 show that 69 

percent of Oklahoma's medium- and low-volatile bituminous coal reserves are present in the Lower Hartshorne and Hartshorne beds in 

Haskell and Le Flore Counties. Use of this coal for coking blends 

and the demand for it as a "smokeless" heating fuel make these 

reserves of great value.

UPPER HABTSHORNE COAL BED

The Upper Hartshorne coal bed occurs from a few feet to 50 feet 

above the base of the McAlester formation everywhere in the Oklav 

homa coalfield except in Haskell and northern Le Flore Counties, in 

part of which the Upper and Lower Hartshorne beds coalesce or are 

separated by only a few inches to a few feet of bony coal or coaly 

shale. Where this junction occurs, the top of the Upper Hartshorne 

coal bed has by redefinition been made the boundary between the 

Hartshorne sandstone and the McAlester formation (Oakes and 

Knechtel, 1948, p. 25), as previously discussed. In other areas the 

interval between the Upper and Lower Hartshorne coal beds is as 

much as 180 feet.

The Upper Hartshorne coal bed is very nearly coextensive with the 

Lower Hartshorne, but it is of minable thickness over a smaller area. 

In addition, high dips have so far prevented mining in both beds in
346 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

some areas; and in other areas the Lower Hartshorne coal has been 

mined in preference, thus making mining in the Upper Hartshorne 

impractical. In the Lehigh mining district in Coal and Atoka Counties, the Upper Hartshorne coal is thin and of little or no value, and 

no reserves have been calculated for it in that area. Some mining in 

the bed has been done in Pittsburg County along the sinuous outcrop 

between the towns of Hartshorne and McAlester; near the Penitentiary fault northwest of McAlester; and near Blanco .in T. 3 N., Es. 14 

and 15 E. The coal in these mines, in general, is from 2% to 4V£ 

feet thick and has a variable number of thin partings. Most of the 

mining in the Upper Hartshorne coal has been done in the vicinity of 

Wilburton, Latimer County, where the coal is from 3 to 5 feet thick 

and generally free from partings; and in T. 8 N., Es. 24, 25, and 26 E.r 

on the south flank of the Backbone anticline in Le More County. 

Very small-scale strip mining of an 18- to 22-inch coal bed that is 

thought to be the Upper Hartshorne has been reported in sees. 35 and 

36, T. 18 N., E. 20 E., Cherokee County. No estimate of reserves has 

been made for this coal bed.

As shown in figure 39, the remaining reserves of coal estimated to> 

be present in the Upper Hartshorne bed, exclusive of the area where 

it is considered jointly with the Lower Hartshorne bed, total 262 

million tons, of which 147 million tons is of high-volatile bituminous 

rank, 5 million tons is of medium-volatile bituminous rank, and 110 

million tons is of low-volatile bituminous rank.

MCALESTER (LEHIGH) COAL BED

The McAlester coal bed occurs in the upper part of the McAlester 

formation, 1,400 to 1,600 feet above the Upper Hartshorne bed. Only 

a few thin coal beds of no value are present in the intervening strata. 

The location and classification of the reserves in the McAlester coal

bed are shown on plate 17.

The Lehigh coal bed in Coal County is about 1,200 feet above the 

Upper Hartshorne bed and generally ranges in thickness from 3y2- 

to 5 feet. It Crops OUt and has been mined on the flanks of the Coalgate anticline northeast and southwest of the town of Coalgate, and

On the WeSt Side Of the Lehigh syncline north and sotith of the town

of Lehigh. The Lehigh bed occurs at about the horizon of the

McAlester bed, and is generally considered to correlate with it, but 

because the coal beds llRVG not jet beBll traced between the two areas 

and because botll names are Still in common use, the reserve estimates 

in tnis report are given separately. The Stigler COal bed of Haskell County may also correlate with the McAlester C0ai bed. This point

is discussed in the next section of this report. Results of an investigation of the correlation of the McAlester coal bed by study of the
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 347

preserved spores of the plants that formed the bed are contained in 

a recent report by Morgan (1955).

The McAlester coal bed has a combined length of outcrop in Pittsburg County of more than 60 miles, and its thickness there ranges,, 

where known, from slightly less than 2 feet to about 5 feet. It has 

been mined on a very extensive scale in Pittsburg County and the' 

mined thickness of coal is in most places from 3 to 4 feet. High dips 

have in several places prevented mining or have restricted it to a zone' 

close to the outcrop, especially on the northeastern end of the Savanna 

anticline in T. 4 N.-, E. 14 E. The McAlester bed commonly contains 

a number of partings or bands of impurities, most of which are thin 

and easily separable bands of pyrite. This is also characteristic of 

the Lehigh bed in Coal County.

The outcrop of the McAlester bed has been traced eastward from 

Pittsburg County across Latimer and Le Flore Counties to Arkansas. 

In the few places throughout that distance where the thickness of thebed is known it ranges from 1% to 3 feet, and because of the scarcity 

of information only small reserves are thought to be present. What 

is believed to be the McAlester coal bed has been extensively drilled 

and strip mined on the southwest end of the Brazil anticline, in T. 6 N.,. 

Rs. 21 and 22 E., Latimer County, where the thickness ranges from 

20 to 26 inches.

The McAlester coal is of high-volatile bituminous rank, except for 

an extremely small tonnage of reserves near the outcrop in T. 6 N., 

Us. 23 and 24 E., Le Flore County. The coal there is considered to be 

of medium-volatile bituminous rank because it occurs east of the line 

established "for use in this report to divide the two ranks. That line,, 

however, is located largely on the basis of analyses of samples of other 

coal beds from localities several miles apart.

Many thin coal beds are present a short distance above the 

McAlester bed in Pittsburg County, but it has not been found possible 

to correlate these beds or to estimate reserves in them. An unnamed 

thin coal bed of no known value also occurs about 30 feet above the

Lehigh bed.

STIGLER COAL, BED

The Stigler coal bed is present over broad areas in Haskell County, 

where it occurs a few feet above the Canieron sandstone member of 

the McAlester formation. The McAlester coal bed occurs at about 

the same horizon, and the possible correlation of these two coal beds, 

has been mentioned in several reports (Wilson and Newell, 1937, p. 85 : 

"* * * The Stigler-McAlester coal * * *"; Oakes and Knechtel, 

1948, p. 27: "The well known Stigler (McAlester?) coal * * *"; 

Knechtel, 1949, p. 48: "The Stigler coal bed * * * [in northern 

Le Flore County] is tentatively correlated with the McAlester coal
348 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

bed * * *"). This correlation has not yet been definitely established, 

however, and in this report the two beds are treated separately.

Faulting and erosion on numerous folds have resulted in many 

separate outcrops of the Stigler coal bed.. The.bed .appears at the surface in all parts of Haskell County except the western part, where the 

coal bed is at depth beneath the surface and its thickness is unknown. 

Nearly all the outcrops have been strip mined or drilled to determine 

the feasibility of strip mining. The thickness of the Stigler bed in 

Haskell County ranges from less than 14 inches to about 32 inches, 

and averages 16 to 20 inches where mined, except in the northern part 

of the county where over large areas its thickness < ranges from 20 to 32 

inches. In much of eastern Haskell County a thin coal bed from. 2 

to 6 inches thick occurs from about 25 to 44 feet above the Stigler bed, 

and is locally referred to as the rider vein.

In Le Flore County the Stigler bed crops out on the north side of the 

Milton anticline, and another outcrop of the bed between the Cavanal 

syncline and the Backbone anticline has been mapped eastward nearly 

to Arkansas. On a part of the latter outcrop thicknesses of from 15 

to 23 inches have been measured. The Stigler coal is also present in 

T. 11 N., K. 23 E., Sequoyah County, where drilling and strip mining 

have shown that the bed averages from 18 to 22 inches in thickness. 

In strip mines in Tps. 10 and 11 N., Ks. 19 and 20 E., in the southern 

part of Muskogee County, the bed averages about 20 inches in thickness; but further north in that county, in Tps. 13 and 14 N., Rs. 18 and 

19 E., its thickness is less than 14 inches.

Estimated remaining reserves in the Stigler bed total 154 million 

tons, of which 39 million tons is of high-volatile bituminous rank, 

106 million tons is of medium-volatile bituminous rank, and 9 million 

tons is of low-volatile bituminous rank. About 75 percent of the total 

estimated remaining reserves is located in Haskell County.

Part of the production from this bed has been used in blends with 

COal from other beds in the manufacture of metallurgical coke. A 

representative analysis of coal from the Stigler bed in Haskell County 

is given in table 5.

Hendricks (1939, p. 269), in discussing the geology of the McAlester formation in the Howe-Wilburton district in L/atimer and Le

Flore Counties, mentions a continuous coal bed "About 58 feet above

the McAlester coal * * * that is probably the equivalent of the Stigler

coal," and refers to this as the Stigler ( 1) coal.

What has been considered as the same bed crops out and has been

drilled on the southwestern end of the Brazil anticline, in the central 

part of T. 6 N., R. 21 E., Latimer County, where it ranges in thickness 

from 16 to 20 inches. The bed has also been penetrated and reported
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 349

to be 26 to 30 inches thick in a few drill holes near its outcrop in the 

southern parts of T. 6 N., Rs. 21 and 22 E. A coal bed that Knechtel 

(1949, p. 49) thought might correlate with this bed and also with the 

so-called rider vein a short distance above the Stigler bed in eastern 

Haskell County, is 15 to 16 inches in thickness and occurs about 80 

feet above the Stigler bed in the northern part of T. 7 N., R. 26 E., the 

southern part of T. 8 N., R. 26 E., and the northwestern part of 

T. 7 N., R. 27 E., Le Flore County. In the present report the very 

small amount of reserves in this bed has been combined with the small 

reserves in the Stigler (?) bed.

Four thin coal beds are at least locally present between the 

Stigler (?) coal-and the top of the McAlester formation, but it has 

not been possible to correlate these beds, and because their thickness 

is not known to exceed 14 inches, no further mention is made of them 

in this report.

CAVANAL, AND RELATED COAL, BEDS

The Cavanal coal bed occurs at about the middle of the Savanna 

formation, and is mined only in northern Le Flore County. It has 

been mapped on the south and east sides of Cavanal Mountain and on 

the north side as far west as T. 8 N., R. 24 E. In several small mines 

along this outcrop the bed averages 24 to 26 inches in thickness, although in a drill hole in sec. 23, T. 6 N., R. 24 E., the bed was 38 

inches thick. Small reserves of coal are present in the Cavanal bed in 

the northwestern corner of T. 7 N., R. 23 E. What is thought to be 

the Cavanal bed also is exposed in extremely small areas in sec. 22, 

T. 10 N., R. 24 E., and in sec. 33, T. 10 N"., R. 26 E. and sec. 4, T. 9 N., 

R. 26 'E., in extreme northern Le Flore County. No reserves were 

calculated for the latter two areas. The Cavanal bed is less 'than 

14 inches thick in Haskell County.

The Cavanal coal is of medium-volatile bituminous rank. The 

composition of the bed, as shown by an average of the 4 available: 

analyses, is shown in table 5.

A thin bed slightly higher than the Cavanal has been mapped on 

the north side of Cavanal Mountain for a distance of about 9 miles 

southwestward from sec. 35, T. 8 N., R. 24 E.; and a thin bed slightly 

lower than the Cavanal is present from sec. 3 to sec. 12, T. 7 N., R. 

25 E., and in the northeastern part of the town of Poteau. Both 

beds are about 26 inches in thickness where mined, and the very small 

amount of reserves in each of them is listed in table 8 (p. 372) as "unnamed bed above Cavanal" and "unnamed bed below Cavanal.". A 

still higher thin bed in which no reserves were calculated crops out 

in sees. 11, 14, 15, and 22, T. 7 N., R. 23 E., Le Flore County;

425537 57 7
'350 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

A coal bed in Pittsburg County which Hendricks (1939, p. 61) 

tentatively referred to as the Cavanal (?) coal, and correlated with 

the Cavanal coal bed of Le Flore County, occurs .in the southern part

 of T. 6 N., R. 15 E. This bed is reported to be 4 feet thick where 

it has been mined in sees. 28, 29, and 30 of that township, but it thins 

rapidly eastward and is only 1 foot thick at the east side of the township. Although the bed is vertical or nearly so, small reserves are 

thought to be present. Its thickness in the remainder of Pittsburg 

County is unknown.

Another coal bed in the Savanna formation which is reported to be 

.about.2 feet thick and is considered to be younger than the Cavanal (?) 

bed has been mined in sees. 9, 27, and 28, T. 5 N., R. 15 E., west and 

:south of the town of Krebs, Pittsburg County. What has been mapped 

.as the same bed has also been mined to the south in sec. 18, T. 4 N., 

R. 16 E. Lack of information has prevented the calculation of re- 

:serves in this bed.

A thin but persistent coal bed slightly younger than the Cavanal 

.bed is present and has been mined on a small scale at several places 

in Muskogee County. The bed there is 120 to 200 feet below the 

.Bluejacket sandstone member of the Boggy formation, and although 

Newell (Wilson and Newell, 1937, p. 53) called it the Lower Boggy

 coal, it is in the upper part of the Savanna formation as since re-

 defined, and is probably the Rowe coal bed. Its thickness averages 

only 9 to 10 inches.

The Lower Witteville coal bed occurs in the upper part of the Bluejacket sandstone. It crops out and has been mined to a small extent 

high on the northeastern side of Cavanal Mountain, in T. 7 N., R. 25 

E., northwest of the town of Poteau, Le Flore County. The coal bed is 

not present where the same horizon is exposed in the northeasten part 

of t. ? N., R. 24 E., a few miles tO the West, Or in the extreme northwestern corner of Le Flore County. In a mine in sec. 15, T. 7 N., R. 

25 E., the bed is more than 4 feet thick, but this thickness includes 

.siiaie partings; the small amount of reserves in the bed has been 

calculated on the basis of a 22-inch thickness of clean coal. The bed 

appears to contain much sulfur, but no analyses are available.

A COal bed Of unknown thickness which may correlate with the

Lower Witteville bed occurs near the base of the Boggy formation 

and has been mined north of the town of Savanna, in sec. 3, T. 4 N.,

"R. 14 E., Pittsburg County.

SEGOR COAL BED

The Secor coal bed occurs about 400 to 500 feet above the base of 

>the Boggy formation, a short distance above the Bluejacket sand-
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 351

.stone member. The Boggy formation is widely exposed over the

 coalfield, and outcrops of the Secor coal bed are thus widely distributed. Local names by which the Secor bed has been known 

include Upper Witteville, Jones Creek, Massey, Blocker, Quinton, 

.and Crowder.

The Secor bed crops out at numerous places in northeastern Pittsburg County and extreme western Haskell County. Its thickness 

there ranges from 13^ inches to slightly more than 3 feet, and aver- 

.ages approximately 2 feet in many small mines in T. 6 N., Us. 15 and 

16 E.; T. 8 N., R. 18 E.; and nearby areas. The bed also crops out 

and has been mined to a small extent at the northeastern ends of the 

Krebs and Kiowa synclines, respectively southwest and southeast of 

the town of McA-lester, where its thickness is reported to be about 3 

feet and the dips less than 25°. The Secor also occurs on both sides

 of the Sansbois syncline in southern Haskell County, where it .is not 

known to exceed 14 inches in thickness, and high on the north, east, 

.and south sides of Cavanal Mountain in northern Le Flore County, 

where past mining near the towns of Calhoun and Witteville found 

the coal to be from 2 feet to slightly more than 4 feet thick, but 

reportedly rather high in ash and sulfur. The Secor bed is about 

28 inches thick where it has been strip mined on a small scale in Tps. 

11 and 12 N., R. 18 E., Mclntosh County. Where it has been mapped 

in central and northern Muskogee County it is more than 14 inches 

thick in only a small area.

On the basis of present information, estimated reserves remaining 

in the Secor bed as of January 1, 1953, total 168 million tons, most

 of which is located in the northeastern Pittsburg County-extreme 

western Haskell County area, and in Cavanal Mountain in northern 

Le Flore County. The Secor coal is of high-volatile bituminous rank

 except in the Cavanal Mountain area, where it is of medium-volatile 

bituminous rank. The average composition, heating value, and ash- 

:softening. temperature of the coal are shown in table 5.

In northern Pittsburg County, an unknown number of coal beds 

are present within a few hundred feet both above and below the 

.Secor, but they are apparently of minable thickness over only short 

distances. No reserve estimates were prepared for these beds.

Only a few thin and discontinuous coal beds are known to be present in the upper part of the Boggy formation. Coal is unknown in 

the Thurman sandstone and Stuart shale, which occur between the 

Boggy and the overlying Senora formation.

COAL BEDS IN THE HENRYETTA MINING DISTRICT

Three coal beds, all within the Senora formation, are present in 

the Henryetta-Morris mining district in Okmulgee County. The 

lowest of these, the Eram bed, has had no recorded production, and
352 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

only about 120,000 tons of coal has been mined from the 5 small strip 

pits in the Morris bed. The higher Henryetta coal, however, has 

been mined intensively since 1902 and has been the source of approximately 17 percent of the total recorded coal production of the 

State.

ERAM AND MORRIS COAL, BEDS

The Eram bed lies an undetermined distance above the base of the 

Senora formation. Drilling records show bed thicknesses ranging 

from 15 to 39 inches and averaging 27^ inches in 19 drill holes, but 

it is very probable that large amounts of parting and impure coal 

are included in these figures, and in the calculation leading to the 

estimate of 2.45 million tons of reserves of all categories in this bedr 

generally much smaller bed thickness figures were used. Several 

small team pits have been mapped along the outcrop, but no commercial production has been reported; nor has the outcrop area or 

the extension of the coal horizon northward and southward along the 

strike been mapped in detail. No analyses of this coal are available.

The Morris coal bed is 125 to 140 feet stratigraphically below the 

Henryetta bed and slightly less than 350 below the top of the Senora 

formation, and as far as is now known it is present only in a small 

part of Okmulgee County (pi. 17). In the area where it has been 

strip mined in the northwestern part of T. 13 N., R. 14 E., the bed 

ranges in thickness from 12 to 22 inches and averages 16 inches, and 

is without partings. Southward from that area the bed is variable 

in thickness and at most places is too thin to mine, except for a 

stripped area a few hundred feet in diameter in the NWy^ sec. 6, T. 12 

N., R. 14 E., where the exceptional thickness of 36 inches may be due 

to downhill slumping; and a small area in sees. 12 and 13 of T. 12 

N., R. 13 E., where an abandoned drift mine, the only known attempt 

to mine this bed by underground methods, is located. Where observed 

near the dam impounding Lake Henryetta, about 7 miles SOllth of 

the latter locality, the Morris coal bed is represented only by a coal 

zone a few inches thick, The extent and thickness of the bed northward fromT. 13 N. are completely unknown.

The estimate Of 4 million tons Of remaining reserves in all categories in this bed does not include coal present under the townsite 

of Morris. Two analyses on the as-received basis of samples of this

bed from the strip mines near the town of Morris, made by a COnlmercial laboratory, are as follows:

Percent Percent

Moisture ______________ 4- 4<5 6.49 

Volatile matter___________________________ 35. 15 35. 41

Fixed carbon_______ ' 54.75 53. TO

Ash _______.____ ____ ____ - 5.64 4.40

Sulfur ___________________-_____ 1.41 2.40

Btu _____________________________ 13,325 13,197
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 353- 

HENRYETTA COAL BED

The Henryetta coal bed occurs about 200 feet stratigraphically below the top of the Senora formation in southern Okmulgee County 

< Although the bed is of minable thickness over a relatively small area,, 

it has been the source of approximately 17 percent of the total recorded1 

coal production of the State.

The thickness of clean coai in the Henryetta bed ranges from about. 

29 to 41% inches and averages nearly 36 inches in the part of Tps. 11 

and 12 N. where it has been intensively mined by underground 

methods. Throughout much of the mining area a medial parting is 

present, and the southward thickening of this parting has prevented 

mining in and south of the southern part of T. 11 N., R. 13 E. In T. 12 

N., K. 12 E., where three large highly mechanized (Coal Age, 1953b) 

drift mines were operating in 1953, this parting is absent or inconsequential. Except for the area disturbed by the Henryetta-Schulter

> faulted anticline, the location of which can be seen on the generalized 

coal-bed map, plate 17, as a long, narrow, light-colored projection into 

the mined area, mining conditions in this field are usually good: the 

roof and floor are excellent, the dip is low and uniform, and little gas is 

present. Six diamond-drill holes located on the west, or downdip, side 

of the mining area found coal thicknesses of from 35 to 39 inches at 

depths of 365 to 630 feet, indicating that large reserves are available 

for future mining.

~" The Henryetta coal is of high-volatile A and B bituminous rank. 

The minimum, maximum, and average composition of the bed shown 

by analyses of 46 samples from this mining area are as follows (U. S. 

Bureau of Mines, 1928j p. 20-21; Moose and Searle, 1929, p. 26-30; 

Dunham and Trumbull, 1955, table 1) :

. ^ , Minimum Average Maximum

 ' ' ' ' '.' ' ' ' .- ! ' (percent) (percent) (percent)

'Moisture_______ ____________ 4.9 7.2 8.9

. Volatile matter_,._____________. 31. 9 34. 4 36. 8

Fixed carbon _________________ 49. 4 52. 8 55. 4

Ash______:___l_.____________ 3.9 5.5 9.5

Sulfur________L_:__________L_:_ .7 1.8 3.7

Btu___________ ______ _ __1 12, 350 12, 860 13, 450 -? .

Twenty determinations made by the U. S. Bureau of Mines of the 

ash-softening temperature of this* coal average 2,120°F and range from 

1,950°F to' 2,420°F. Estimated remaining reserves in the'Henryetta 

bed in this mining area total about 243 million tons. ' . '.;'

North across, the Deep Fork of the Canadian River from the mining 

area described above, the Henryetta coal bed is extremely impure, and 

near:the southern boundary,of .T..13 N. it can only be described as a 

carbonaceous shale or carbonaceous sandstone. Farther north the coal 

agajn becomes of minable thickness and purity. Its thickness averages
354 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

nearly 25 inches where it has been strip mined in the area between the 

towns of Morris and Okmulgee and nearly 17 inches for a distance of 

2% miles along the outcrop in a part of T. 14 N., R. 14 E. Estimated 

remaining reserves in these two areas total over 27 million tons, nearly 

;all of which is in the 14- to- 28-inch thickness category.

The Henryetta bed has recently been proved to be the same bed as 

the Croweburg (Broken Arrow) bed of northeastern Oklahoma and 

:southeastern Kansas.

COAL BEDS IN NOBTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA

As shown by the column of plate 16 headed "Northeastern Oklahoma," a rather large number of named coal beds occur in that part of 

the State. A few of these beds, notably the Croweburg (Broken Arrow) and the Dawson, are relatively thick for long distances and have 

been well known and extensively mined for many years. Most of the 

remaining beds are on the average much thinner, and are so variable in 

thickness at the outcrop as to be in some places discontinuous or nearly 

so. Nevertheless some of them have been mined at a great number of 

.small operation. Nearly all the beds recur persistently over long disstances. No detailed map has been made of the outcrops of many of 

these thinner beds, nor are there many closely spaced thickness measurements available for them. Because of this no meaningful estimates 

of reserves in these beds could be made, even though some thousands of 

tons of coal are mined from them each year.

Of the 14 named coal beds or beds at the same horizon as named beds 

of southern Kansas, reserve estimates have been made only for the 

Croweburg (Broken Arrow) bed, for the Dawson bed, for uncorrelated 

beds in very small areas near the surface in northeastern Rogers 

County, and in a rather large area of relatively thick coal which closely 

spaced drilling has indicated is present at depth in Craig County.

In the following discussion, the coal beds of northeastern Oklahoma 

are described in order from oldest to youngest, and for convenience 

.are divided into two groups: Those that occur below the well-known 

Fort Scott limestone and are therefore of Krebs and Cabaniss (that 

is, Cherokee) age, and those that occur above the Fort Scott and are 

 of Marmaton and Missouri age.

COALi BEDS BKLOW THE FORT SCOTT LIMESTONE

Recent field investigations have resulted in the correlation of coal

"beds between the numerous large and small strip mines 'Scattered 

through northeastern Oklahoma, and have established the equivalence

of these coal beds with the generally thicker and better known beds

of the Cherokee group in the southeastern Kansas coalfield. Much of 

this work has been done by C. C. Branson, director of the Oklahoma
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 355

'Geological Survey, and a number of graduate students at the University of Oklahoma working under his direction. The information 

in the following discussion, except where stated otherwise, is derived 

from the work of this group.

The correlation diagram, plate 16, shows that the Krebs and Cabaniss groups, which in northeastern Oklahoma contain all the coal 

beds below the Fort Scott limestone, also contain all the coal beds in 

the southern part of the Oklahoma coalfield. Though several of the 

northeastern Oklahoma coal beds have been traced as far south as the 

Arkansas River, correlation of them with the coal beds in the southern part of the field has not yet been established.

The lowest coal bed of northeastern Oklahoma, the Riverton, lies 

between the Warner (Little Cabin) sandstone member and the base 

of the Krebs group, and is named from the Riverton coal of Kansas, 

which occurs in the same sequence. It has been found at several 

localities in Craig County, but is not known to exceed 14 inches in 

thickness.

Higher in the section, between the Spaniard limestone member of 

the Savanna and the Bluejacket sandstone member of the Boggy 

formation, the Rowe and Dry wood (Bellamy) coal beds persist for 

long distances southward into Oklahoma. The Rowe bed has been 

stripped at a number of localities as far south as Muskogee County, 

and its thickness is at most places less than 14 inches, though it is 

a maximum of 18 inches thick in northwestern Mayes County and is 

reported to be 26 inches thick in T. 17 N., R. 18 E., Wagoner County. 

The Drywood coal is discontinuous but persistent in Oklahoma, and 

though it is thin it has been mined west of the town of Bluejacket in 

northeastern Craig County and for local use at several other places.

A coal bed that averages 20 inches in thickness where mined in the 

southern part of T. 28 N., R. 20 E., Craig County, has been correlated 

by Howe (1951, p. 2091) with the well-known Weir-Pittsburg coal 

of ^southeastern Kansas. This is-probably the coal bed long known 

as the Cherokee (Shannon and others, 1926, p. 39, pi. 23). It is now 

referred to in Oklahoma as the Pawpaw bed. Much strip mining and 

some underground mining have been done in this bed at many places 

from the vicinity of the Kansas State line south to T. 16 N., R. 17 E., 

in southern Wagoner County. The thickness of the bed is 18 to 23 

inches in most places, and is reported to range from 10 to 48 inches. 

Thus it is a relatively thick bed compared with others above and below 

it^ but not enough detailed outcrop mapping and closely-spaced thickness'.measurements are available to calculate a meaningful estimate of 

reserves.

Three coal beds occurring in northeastern Oklahoma between the 

Pawpaw (Weir-Pittsburg) bed and the Croweburg (Broken ArroAv)
356 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

bed have been given the names of their Kansas correlatives. From 

oldest to youngest these are the Pilot, which is known to be present as 

far south as T. 18 N"., R. 16 E., but is not known to be more than 6 

inches thick; the Mineral, which occurs and is mined in Tps. 28 and 

29 N., R. 20 E. (Howe, 1951, p. 2091), where it is from 14 to 22 inches 

thick; and the Fleming, which is mined in Oklahoma only in an area 

west of the town of Welch, in northeastern Craig County.

Above these beds and a short distance beneath the Verdigris limestone member of the Senora formation lies the well-known Croweburg (Broken Arrow) coal bed, the occurrence of which has been 

described in detail by Oakes (1944). The recent division of the rocks 

of Cherokee age into the Krebs and Cabaniss groups places the Croweburg bed at about the middle of the Cabaniss group in Oklahoma. It 

lias been mapped from the northern edge of the terrace and alluvial 

deposits of the Arkansas River in sec. 36, T. 18 N., R. 14 E., northeastward through the northwestern corner of Wagoner County, past 

Claremore in Rogers County, to the top of T. 22 N. The Broken 

Arrow bed, as it was formerly referred to, has been definitely correlated with the Croweburg coal bed of Kansas and with the Henryetta 

bed of Okmulgee County. The outcrop, mined areas, and areas where 

reserves are thought to be present are shown on plate 17.

The Croweburg bed has been strip mined to an overburden thickness of about 35 feet almost continuously through Tps. 18 and 19 N., 

where its thickness ranges from 18 to 30 inches. In general the bed 

in this area becomes thinner toward the north, averaging about 24 

inches in thickness in T. 18 N".-, about 20 inches in T. 19 N., and about 

18 inches in the southern part of T. 20 N"., R. 15 E. The outcrop of the 

bed is hidden in the central part of the latter township by alluvium 

in the valley of Verdigris River. The exact thickness of the bed is not 

known for the next 9 miles northward along the outcrop, and little 

mining has been done there. In T. 22 N. the uniformly low dip of the 

coal bed and the gently rolling topography have combined to give the

outcrop of the Croweburg bed a somewhat intricate pattern; this increase in the length of the outcrop has resulted in widespread strip 

mining in this township. A small amount of mining has been done in 

the bed in T. 23 N., R. 17 E., but it is only 12 inches thick in one place 

in that township, and no reserves are considered to be present in the 

bed there.

Northward from T. 23 N. the Croweburg bed is reported to be as 

thin as half an inch, and to be mined where it is as thick as 19 inches. 

As is true of most of the coal beds in northeastern Oklahoma, not 

enough detailed information about thickness, purity, and extent is

available to make possible an evaluation of reserves, even though large 

tonnages of coal of minable thickness may eventually be proved to 'be 

present.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 357

The Croweburg coal is high-volatile bituminous in rank. The 

average composition on the as-received basis of the Croweburg coal 

in Oklahoma, based on 25 analyses made by the U. S. Bureau of 

Mines, is shown in table 5. On the basis of present thickness information, all of which is restricted to a zone within about one-eighth of 

a mile of the outcrop or mined areas, remaining reserves in the bed 

are estimated to total about 101 million tons.

The Bevier coal bed of southern Kansas becomes thin within a short 

distance southward into Oklahoma, and it is not known to be mined 

there. The next higher coal bed lies only a few feet below the 

Breezy Hill limestone member, and has been named the Iron Post coal 

by Howe (1951, p. 2092). In Oklahoma, it has often been referred to 

as the Fort Scott coal, and it is not to be correlated with the Mulky 

coal of Kansas, which lies above the Breezy Hill and does not extend 

into Oklahoma.

The horizon of the Iron Post coal has been mapped by J. H. Warren, of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, from the southwestern 

corner of T. 19 N., E. 15 E., northwestern Wagoner County, to the 

Kansas State line. Observed thicknesses of the bed in this distance 

range from 2 inches in sec. 36, T. 19 N., E. 14 E., to 14 to 16 inches 

in T. 22 N., E. 15 E.; T. 24 N., E. 17 E.; and T. 26 K, E. 18 E. The 

bed may be more than 14 inches thick for a distance of about 20 miles 

northward from the Catoosa area, but not enough detailed thickness 

information is available for making reliable reserve estimates. Undoubtedly a modest amount of remaining reserves is present in the 

bed. The Iron Post coal is mined at a number of places between 

T. 23 N., E. 17 E., and Kansas, but it is less than 14 inches thick at 

several of these operations.

Core drilling done during 1917-22 disclosed the presence in Tps. 

28 and 29 N., Es. 18 and 19 E., northwestern Craig County, of a coal 

bed at depths ranging from about 250 feet at the east side of E. 19 

E. to about 550 feet at the west side of E. 18 E. Its maximum thickness is slightly over 4 feet. No coal beds of this thickness have been 

seen at the surface to the east of this area, and the correlation of this 

thick bed is unknown.

The Fort Scott, limestone crops out on the eastern side of E. 19 

E. at this latitude, and the combined thickness of the Krebs and 

Cabaniss (Cherokee) groups thereabouts is 400 to 500 feet. It can 

therefore be surmised that this coal bed must be somewhere near the 

middle of the rocks of Cherokee age. Inasmuch as the Weir-Pittsburg coal of Kansas is fairly near the middle of the Cherokee group 

of Kansas, and is about 44 inches thick in th& southern part of the 

southeastern Kansas coalfield (Pierce and Courtier, 1937, p. 66 and 

fig. 2), it may be that the thick coal bed of Craig County will in
358 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

the future be shown to be a thick local development of the 

Pittsburg bed.

COAL BEDS ABOVE THE FORT SCOTT LIMESTONE

Four named coal beds, 1 of Marmaton and 3 of Missouri age, are 

present in northeastern Oklahoma, but of these only the Dawson is 

of more than stratigraphic or local economic value. Except for the 

southward extension of the outcrop of the Dawson bed, no coal beds 

of Marmaton or younger age are known to be present in rocks of 

Pennsylvanian age south of the Arkansas Biver. More detailed information about these coal beds is contained in recent reports of 

M. C. Oakes (1940, 1952) and C. M. Cade (1953).

The Lexington coal bed occurs in Oklahoma at the top of the 

Labette shale, and is only 1 or 2 inches thick where it has been 

found in Tps. 28 and 29 N., R. 18 E., northwestern Craig County.. 

It is therefore only of stratigraphic interest.

The Dawson coal bed, also known as the Tulsa bed, occurs in the 

Seminole formation, which is of lowermost Missouri age. It has 

been mapped from the Okmulgee-Tulsa County line near the center 

of T. 16 N., K. 12 E., northward through Tulsa and Collinsville to 

the north line of T. 22 N"., K. 14 E., and extends north to the Kansas 

State line. The outcrop of the bed is straight in overall configuration, and the westward dip is consistently low. The outcrop, mined' 

areas, and areas where reserves are present in the Dawson bed are 

shown on plate 17.

The Dawson bed is fairly uniform in thickness and averages about 

20 inches through much of Tps. 22 and 23 N., and it ranges from 

18 to 30 inches in thickness in the Ny2 T. 19 N. and the Sy2 T. 20 N.r 

near and within the limits of the city of Tulsa. In these two areas 

it has been extensively mined, mostly by stripping but also, in the 

Tulsa area, by slope and drift mines. Between these two areas and 

farther north and south along the outcrop the bed is irregular in 

thickness and generally thinner, being at many places less than 14

inches in thickness, and it has been mined there in only a few small

and isolated areas. Just SOUth of the mining area in and near Tulsa 

the bed is hidden by alluvial and terrace deposits of the Arkansas 

River valley, and to the north it is also masked for shorter distances 

by the alluvium in the valleys of Bird Creek and Caney River. Near 

the Kansas State line, in Tps. 27, 28, and 29 N., the Dawson coal

is less than i foot thick. Although logs of wells drilled for oil and

gas indicate the presence underground of the Dawson bed at many 

places, they do not give reliable information as to its thickness.

The Dawson coal, in common with the other coal beds of northeastern Oklahoma, is of high-volatile bituminous rank. The average
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 359}

composition, heating value, and ash-softening temperature of the bed 

are shown in table 5. On the basis of present information, all of 

which is restricted to a zone very close to the outcrop and mined areas, 

it is estimated that the remaining reserves in the Dawson bed as of 

January 1,1953, total about 49 million tons.

A coal bed that at most places is less than 1 or 2 inches thick and 

is at about the horizon of the Cedar Bluff coal of Kansas occurs about 

40 feet below the top of the Coffeyville formation in the northwestern 

Nowata-southeastern Washington County area in Oklahoma. One 

or more thin coal beds from 1 to 3^ inches thick are also common 

in the topmost 10 feet of that formation. The thickest reported' 

ocurrence of any of these coal beds is in sec. 30, T. 27 N., R. 15 E.,. 

Nowata County, where one of the upper coal beds is 1 foot thick.. 

The Cedar Bluff coal is not known as far south as Tulsa County, but 

one or more thin streaks of coal are present in the upper 3 feet of theCoffeyville formation there.

The still higher Thayer coal bed in the lower part of the Chanuteformation extends entirely across the northern part of WashingtonCounty and has been seen in place as far south as sec. 12, T. 21 N., 

R. 11 E., southeastern Osage County. It takes its name from the 

Thayer coal bed of Kansas, with which it is correlated.

The Thayer bed is about 6 inches thick and relatively free of impurities in sec. 12, T. 25 N., R. 12 E., and reaches a maximum observed' 

thickness of 18 inches but has several shale partings in sec 1 of" 

that township. The bed is commonly less than 1 or 2 inches thick,. 

however, and though its persistence makes it stratigraphically important, it is not considered to contain any reserves.

COAL IN CARTER COUNTY

One bed of coal of Pennsylvanian age is present in T. 5 S., R. 2 E.,. 

Carter County, on the southwestern side of the Arbuckle Mountains, 

an area distinctly separated both geologically and geographically 

from the main coalfield of eastern Oklahoma. Tomlinson (1929,. 

p. 45) states that it occurs just below his Daube limestone member 

of the Hoxbar formation, and that this is the only bed of coal known 

in the Ardmore basin; but more recent information indicates that 

more than one coal bed is present.

The outcrop of a coal bed, as shown in U. S. Senate Document 390 

(pi. 11), extends for 4^/2 miles southeastward from a point slightly 

south of the center of sec. 8, T. 5 N., R. 2 E., to a point near the center 

of Ny2 sec. 35 in the same township. That report also states (p. 360) 

that where mining has been carried on near the southeastern corner 

of sec. 8, the bed 
 360 CONTRIBUTIONS TO . ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

is 3 feet 4 inches thick, and separated by a variable parting of shale 3 to 5 

inches thick. The coal has been prospected at a number of places along the

 outcrop and its thickness reported to be practically as found in the mine.

The Ardmore coal has not been analyzed. In physical character it is closely 

related to that of the Lehigh coal, except that it is probably a little softer. In 

the folding of the strata the coal in the mine above referred to has been 

fractured and in places small fissures formed.

According to Tomlinson (1929, p. 45), an attempt made in 1890 to 

mine the coal at this locality was unsuccessful. Tomlinson's map 

(pi. 20) shows northeast dips ranging from 35° to 42° in the area 

where the coal bed outcrops. Shannon and others (1926, p. 59) state 

that the coal is not generally found under favorable conditions for 

mining, but production of 828 tons in the year ending June 30, 1904, 

is recorded from a mine with a slope length of 1,000 feet (Taff, 1905, 

p. 399).

No estimate of reserves has been made for this coal bed because 

more detailed information is lacking.

LIGNITE IN CIMARRON COUNTY

Impure lignite from 12 to 18 inches thick has been observed at 

several localities in Tps. 3 and 4 N. of parallel 36°30/ , R. 1 E., Cimarron meridian, Cimarron County, at the extreme western end of the 

Oklahoma panhandle. The lignite is of Cretaceous age and is reported by Rothrock (1925, p. 45, 86) to be near the top of the Purgatoire formation and by Schoff and Stovall (1943, p. 38, 89) to be in 

the overlying Dakota sandstone. The information given here is 

taken from those two reports.

Two drifts which have never been worked expose the lignite in 

:S6CS. 19 and 20, T. 4 N., R. 1 E. At the larger of these two drifts, 

near the center of sec. 19, the lignite is 18 inches thick. An analysis

made by A. C. Shead in the laboratories of the Oklahoma Geological

'Survey of a sample of the lignite from this locality is as follows '

Percent

Moisture __________ 12. 64 

Volatile matter__-____ ___-__-__ - 31.25 

Fixed carbon__ ___ 35.34 

Ash _____________________________ 20,77

Sulfur ______ _____ _____ _________ . 55

Btu: 7,550

Lignite 12 inches thick has been stripped in S6C. 32, T, 4 N., K. 1 E. | 

in Sec. 33 Of the Same township a bed of aboiit the same thickness

containing a large amount of shale and thin sandstone lenses is

 exposed. In the NW% S6C. 5, T. 3 N., R. 1 E., a bed of lignite is 18 

inches thick, and can be traced for more than a quarter of a mile along 

the bed of South Carrizo Creek, a tributary of the Cimarron River. 

An analysis made by A. C. Shead in the laboratories of the Oklahoma
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 361

\

>. Geological Survey of a sample of the lignite from this: area, where 

it'was being mined for local use in 1943, is as follows:

, Percent' 

\ . Moisture ______________________________ 11. 35

** ! : Volatile matter.___________________^______ 30. 09'

i Fixed carbon ___________________________ 40. 58.

Ash.___________________________________ 17..98

v Sulfur ____________________1____________ .40

Btu: 8,500

Though the lignite occurs at about the same horizon in eacli of these-

* five exposures, it has not been traced from one to another, and may be1 

present only in small lenses. The high ash content and the thinness; 

and apparently small extent of this material indicate that it is most

* likely not worthy of commercial exploitation at present. Becauseof this thinness where it has been observed and the lack of detailed 

information on its occurrence and extent, no estimate of reserves has-- 

v been prepared for it.

COAL MINING IN OKLAHOMA

> PRODUCTION

.: The presence of coal in what is now Oklahoma has been known sinceat least 1821, when Thomas Nuttall's journal of several excursions, 

across the coalfield was published (Nuttall, 1821, p. 146-177; Drake,,. 

1898, p. 327), but mining on a commercial scale did not begin until 

the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad was built through McAlester in 

1872 (Taff, 1902, p. 386-7; 1905, p. 397-8). In the following year 

^ branch lines were built to haul coal from nearby mines to the main line 

at McAlester, and the beginning of commercial-scale mining in each 

succeeding part of the coalfield was similarly made possible by thearrival of railroad lines.

The Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf Eailroad was built eastward 

from South McAlester along the southern limit of the coalfield soon

%. after 1872, as a consequence of which mines were opened at Hartshorne, Wilburton, Ho we, and other points; and the later extension 

of this line eastward to Memphis, Tenn., and westward across Oklaf homa widely increased the market for the coal. The St. Louis-San 

Francisco Railway was built across the east side of Indian Territory 

about 1885, followed by the building there of the Kansas City South-

*, em Railway, which gave transportation north to Kansas and Missouri 

and south to the Gulf of Mexico at Port Arthur, Tex. In 1891 the* 

steadily rising production first reached a million tons a year. (Seefig. 43 and table 6.) These 4 railroad lines were the only ones operating in the coalfield in 1897, at which time 18 companies and individuals were mining coal on a commercial scale, but soon after the turn 

of the century many main and branch lines were built through much
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

1873 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1952

YEAR

FIGURE 43. Coal production in Oklahoma, 1873-1952.

 of the remainder of the coalfield, including the Henryetta mining 

^district, in which production began in 1902. By 1903, production 

from the 117 mines throughout the coalfield exceeded S1/^ million tons. 

Production of coal by strip mining was not important in Oklahoma 

before 1920, when only 5 percent of the record State total production 

of 4.85 million tons was mined by that method. Nearly every year 

.since, however, and especially in the period 1940-49, this method of 

mining has contributed a larger share of the State's production: in 

1930,13 percent; in 1940, 38 percent; in 1943, 51 percent; and in 1949,

 a peak of 68 percent (fig. 43). This relatively recent quantity production of coal by strip-mining methods has come mostly from the 

^counties north of the Canadian River, from Sequoyah County, and 

from much of Haskell County. (See production figures for individual counties, table 6.)

The cumulative reported production of coal in Oklahoma through 

1952 is about 166.45 million tons, of which nearly 28 million tons,

 or 16.8 percent, has been strip mined. In 1952, 1.31 million tons, or 

about 60 percent of the total State production of 2.19 million tons 

in that year, was produced from 19 strip mines, and the remainder

from 28 Underground Operations. In 1952 Oklahoma ranked fifteenth

 umong coal-producing States, after Missouri and before Montana. 

Production of coal from nearby States in that year was as follows:

Tons 

Missouri ___________ -1 2,954,450

Oklahoma____________ 2,193,409 

Kansas . _____ 2,028,601 

Iowa ____________________ 1,380,733

Arkansas - _ _____________________ 873,088
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 363

Much of the coal mined in Oklahoma in recent years has .been 

blended with other coal and used in the manufacture of metallurgical 

coke. In 1950, 1,021,540 tons, or 38 percent of the total State production for that year, was used in high-temperature coke ovens: 

796,359 tons in Texas, 207,795 tons in Utah, and 17,386 tons in other 

States. In 1952, 987,739 tons, or 45 percent of total Oklahoma production for that year, was used in coke ovens: 792,425 tons in Texas, 

122,930 tons in Utah, and 72,384 tons in California (U. S. Bureau 

of Mines, 1954, p. 208-209).

MINING METHODS

The trend toward strip mining is more pronounced in Oklahoma 

than in the United States as a whole. The 19 strip mines operating 

in 1952 were equipped with 23 shovels and 11 draglines, and produced 59.9 percent of the State's total output, which was far above 

the 23.3 percent of national output produced by stripping in that 

year (U. S. Bureau of Mines, 1954). Average production of each 

strip pit in Oklahoma in 1952 was 69,165 tons; for each strip pit 

in the entire nation, it was 66,287 tons. The productivity of the 

average number of 503 men working in the strip mines in the State 

averaged 13.09 tons per man-day during that year; the national 

average was 16.77 tons per man-day.

Notwithstanding the importance of strip mining in recent years, 

83.2 percent of the State's cumulative production has been mined by 

underground methods. Most of the underground operations have 

been slope mines, partly because in much of the large and intensively 

mined southern part of the coalfield the coal occurs on the flanks of 

folds, so that the coal beds at the outcrop have relatively high dips. 

In most of the slope mines the main entry is driven directly down 

the dip, generally paralleled by one or more air courses, and a number of horizontal cross entries are driven on each side, from which 

rooms or panels are driven up or down dip. Many shaft mines have 

also been operated, mainly where the coal is at depth in the more 

level central part of synclines, but also in areas such as the vicinity 

 of Henryetta and in the Dawson bed near Tulsa, where a uniformly 

low dip has resulted in the coal being only a few hundred feet underground at a great distance from the outcrop. The far smaller number of drift mines have been located mainly where gently dipping 

coal beds are exposed in hillsides, such as in the hilly country in Le 

Flore County in the southeastern corner of the coalfield and in the 

Henryetta mining district. In the Henryetta district, of the 57 underground mines known to have been operated, 21 were opened by 

shafts, 21 by drifts, and 15 by slopes.
TABI/E 6. Reported production of coal in Oklahom

[Figures for 1873-79 from Eavenson (1942, p. 568); for 1880-1923 from IT. S. Geological Survey, Mineral Reso

All figures in short tons]

Year

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

188O 

1881 

1882

Tonnage

i 50, 000 

i 60, 000 

i 70, 000 

i 80, 000 

i 90, 000 

i 100, 000 

i 110, 000 

120, 947 

150, 000 

200, 000

Year

1883 

1884 

1885 

1886 

1887 

1888 

1889 

1890 

1891 

1892

Tonnage

350, 000 

448, 000 

500, 000 

534, 580 

685, 911 

761, 986 

752, 832 

869, 229 

1, 091, 032 

1, 192, 721

Year

1893 

1894 

1895 

1896 

1897 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902

Tonna

1, 252

969

1, 211

1, 366

1, 336

1, 381

1, 537

1, 922

2, 421

2, 820

Year

1873-1907-. 

1908,...- --..

1910. - - 

1911.. 

1912....- 

1913-.- 

1914.... - 

1915... __ -

1916.. .__ 

1918.. ___ 

1919-. 

1920.. __

1921...-. 

1922...---- 

1923...--- 

1924...-- 

-IQOC

1926

1927... __

1928-, -

County

Coal

576, 746 

658, 159 

498, 658 

778, 546 

816, 155 

889,299 

676, 292 

556, 479 

524,954 

581,770 

542,254 

427,306 

461,394 

187, 451 

79,847 

33,464 

29,249 

52, 862 

83, 452 

124, 015 

131, 110

Oraig

(0

12, 707 

12,700 

(«) 

(4) 

(4> 

(4> 

(0 

5,062 

8,284 

2,187

Easkell

s 674, 636 

a 738, 806 

3 675, 953 

a 701, 374 

3 766, 798 

s 738, 679

^ 82, 752 

1 230, 174 

i 246, 049 

1 129, 306 

' 96, 070 

7 83, 910 

12 226, 744 

130, 695 

72, 847 

129, 132 

» 321, 234 

» 380, 248 

148, 736

Latimer

W 

(4) 

« 

(4) 

W 

« 

666, 274 

740, 869 

810, 504 

841, 262 

919, 487 

697, 177 

800, 442 

344, 659 

191, 098 

137, 144 

254,024 

269, 023 

308, 988 

. 371, 318 

247, 690

Le Flore

187, 624 

128, 376 

87,628 

122, 468 

150, 511 

201,853 

264,023 

256, 642 

266, 162 

285, 239 

331, 374 

274, 597 

411,812 

296, 814 

211, 401 

214, 907 

163, 139 

250, 965 

370, 285 

446, 939 

568, 878

Muscogee

s 48, 221 

8 35, 323 

u 27, 503 

(0 

» 66, 253 

i 96, 903 

is 103, 081

 (4)

(«) 

i« 181, 038

Okmulgee

172, 934 

262, 310 

227, 107 

408, 202 

629, 989 

820, 659 

905, 128 

869, 244 

852, 206 

1, 051, 748 

1, 282, 139 

965, 497 

1, 477, 677 

974, 457 

829, 554 

818, 050 

818, 683 

541, 096 

584,607 

. 869, 227 . 

735, 322

Pi

1

1

1

, 1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1
1929. .........

1930 -

1931..........

1932..........

1QQO

1934..........

1QQC

1936-....-.-..

1937 _Y- . 

1939...........

1940

1942.. ........

1943 --

1945.........

1946 

1947. 

1948 

1949. 

1950--------.

1952.. ..

Total 1873- 

1952......

134, 328

% Qoi

CQ one

42,886

46, 671

38, 913

01 A7Q

13,312

f)A 4C-I

26; 280

63,035

242,932

312, 035

239, 479

213, 702

233, 038

134, 937

81, 269

72, 267

58,184

10, 954, 312

3,619

6,242

13, 932

4,426

3 414

0)

<«)

«

3,532

«

8,288

10,329

13,643

8 667, 388

17, 718

8 652, 213

8,216

10, 784

7,839

14, 301

34, 462

85, 214

58, 704

14, 932

1, 680, 156'

161,412

i ft1} 9**Q

on 47c

103. 535

ne n*>7

68, 161

50,642

(<)

20 85, 811

20 62, 210

102, 060

110, 163

39, 933

91,532

177, 371

239, 518

388, 057

392, 099

307, 312

9, 779, 478

210, 780

17C CAA

62, 209

83,959

93,466

69, 082

C7 QQQ

. 29,229

6, 153

6,794

97 4flQ

34,637

20, 810

17, 057

33, 566

36, 790

126, 748

329,234

314, 142

82,271

2,420

22,546

9, 500, 285

672, 749

483, 367

323, 067

340, 062

347, 416

oce QO-i

406, 057

10 041 COfi

OK,* C4.X

452, 988

396, 521

297,042

198, 899

495, 964

452, 681

681, 894

424, 637

320, 532

15, 047, 377

8 215, 330

* 161, 969

8 110, 736

8 122, 330

ft 199 144.

11, 172

1Q ftfvl

6,333

10,635

9,586

6,797

5 4 EO KA(\

53,030

123, 891

138, 345

152, 198

203, 930

194, 823

184, 935

151, 010

9 9fiS

3, 747, 294

772, 819

rui 0524

259,931

254, 733

185, 846

311, 036

343, 597

231, 575

351, 859

368, 089

533, 212

639,630

699, 262

848, 746

1, 164, 622

1, 110, 530

767, 650

690, 724

394, 094

28, 321, 825

1, 319

696

203

177

262

231

159

161

212

246

372

245

98

166

294

294

282

299

. 200

32, 121

1 Estimated.

2 Includes small mines.

? Includes Latimer County.

4 Production included elsewhere.

6 Includes Wagoner County.

6 Includes Atoka and Johnston Counties.

7 Includes Atoka County. '

8 Includes Wagoner and Rogers Counties. 

8 Includes Craig County.

10 Exclusive of wagon mines in 1921 and from 1924-52.

11 Includes Wagoner, Rogers, and Craig Counties.

a Includes Wagoner, Rogers, Muskogee, and Craig Counties.

13 Includes Craig 

.K Includes Musk

18 Includes Maye

'«Includes Maye

 " Includes May

18 Includes Mcln

19 Includes Hask

Jo Includes Sequ

21 Includes Mcln

22 Includes Sequ

23 Includes Mcln
366 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC- GEOLOGY

*> The predominant plan of underground mining in the State has 

been the room-and-pillar system, but numerous mines are now being 

operated on the panel system. Longwall mining was experimented 

with in various parts of the field in the early years, and has long 

been used in mining the relatively thin Cavanal bed on Poteau Mountain near Poteau, Le Flore County. An interesting system has been 

used for extracting the coal from one longwall mine in the Cavanal 

bed in this area. After undercutting, the coal is hauled out of the 

mine in large blocks, some weighing as much as 3 tons, by scow-pan 

and low flat mine cars. These blocks are broken into lump size with 

air hammers at the tipple, resulting in nearly 100 percent production 

of lump coal.

The average production of each of the 28 underground mines operating in Oklahoma in 1952 was 31,402 tons; the national average was 

63,553 tons. Average production per man-day for the average num- ^ 

ber of 1,164 men employed at Oklahoma underground mines in 1952: 

was 4.03 tons; the national average was 6.39 tons. In the same year, 

95.9 percent of the recorded underground production of coal in Oklahoma was mechanically cut, and 90.6 percent was mechanically loaded; 

in the entire nation, 95.1 percent was mechanically cut, and 75.6- 

percent was mechanically loaded.

Of the coal mined by both strip and underground methods in Oklahoma in 1952, 28.6 percent was mechanically cleaned in 5 operating 

plants; in the same year, 48.7 percent of total national production was 

mechanically cleaned.

-r

RECOVEBABILITY IN MINING

Only a part of the coal originally in place in a block of coal being 

mined can be delivered to the railroad car because of the normal losses 

in mining and preparation: coal is lost in cutting, blasting, and 

handling; additional large quantities are left in pillars, roof, and. 

floor; and more is lost in cleaning. Additional losses are apparent. "** 

when large areas of mining, including many individual mining operations, are considered: coal is left in barrier pillars between mines 

and in beds unmined because of mining in other beds close above or ' 

below, and coal is lost in rolls, pinches, faults, and at shallow depth 

under streams, towns, and the like.

Losses such as these, considered over large areas of mining, are very r~ 

highly variable, but the commonly used approximation of 50 percent 

loss, or 50 percent recoverability, mentioned by Averitt, Berryhill, and 

Taylor (1953, p. 12) seems to be a good average for the country as a 

whole. A detailed study of the Henryetta mining district in Okmulgee County, Okla. (Dunham and Trumbull, 1955), found that overall 

recoverability there for underground mining has been 50.5 percent.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 367

The geologic setting in which the coal beds of the southern part of 

the Oklahoma coalfield occur, however, is not so favorable for recovery 

as are conditions in the Henryetta district. Reporting on an examination made in 1915 of 59 mines in the southern part of the Oklahoma-, 

coalfield, where most of the remaining reserves of coal in the State 

are located, Rutledge and Harrington (1918, p. 8) state: "In a few 

mines the recovery of the coal in the bed may be as much as 60 percent, although the usual proportion is about 50, and in many mines is* 

as low as 45 per cent." Again, on page 9, they state that "Practically 

one ton of coal is left unmined, with great probability that it willi 

never be recovered, for every ton mined." This recoverability applies 

to individual mining operations and does not take into account the 

additional losses between operations. Mining methods have, of course,, 

been improved greatly since 1915, notably by the trend toward substituting the panel system of mining for the room-and-pillar system 

and by widespread mechanization, and therefore a greater recoverability than that mentioned above might be expected now and in thefuture.

Measurement and estimation of the areas which have been mined 

out and the areas of barrier pillars which have been left and will 

probably be left in future operations in Oklahoma, assuming an average barrier width between presently abandoned and commonly flooded, 

old mines and future new operations of 400 to 500 feet, reveal that 

about 427 million tons have been mined and lost in mining. Comparison of this figure with the total recorded production of 166.45 million: 

tons leads to an overall recoverability figure of 39 percent for miningin Oklahoma to January 1,1953.

The main factor which will undoubtedly cause difficulty in futuremining in the southern part of the coalfield, in addition to the high 

dips in many places, is the flooding of many shallow mines around the 

edges of synclinal basins. In discussing the problem of recoverability,, 

Rutledge and Harrington (1918, p. 8) state:

Many of the crop workings from which had been mined all the coal that, 

could profitably be extracted * * * have been abandoned and allowed to fill withi 

water and gas, thus becoming a menace to adjoining mines and an almost insurmountable obstacle to mining below on the dip. The small mine has been therule rather than the exception, and on some leases it was formerly customary 

to open one mine on each 40-acre tract, and abandon the" mine when the workingsreached the boundary. l\ '.

Exactly how much the presence of these ab amoved and flooded or 

gas-filled mines up the dip of the coal bedsjrr^m ffee great store of 

coal reserves lower in the synclinal basins willfd^creafee recoverability 

there, because of the possibility of flooding alMphe ^consequent need. 

for extra-wide barrier pillars, remains to be
368 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

Although recoverability in strip mining is commonly far higher 

than that in underground mining, averaging perhaps 80 or 90 percent

 compared with 40 or 50 percent for underground mining, the part of 

the remaining coal reserves of Oklahoma which lies near enough to the 

surface to be stripped is extremely small. Consequently the higher 

recovery associated with strip mining cannot be expected materially to 

increase overall recoverability of the remaining coal reserves of the 

State.

REFERENCES

American Society for Testing Materials, 1939, Standard specifications for

classification of coals by rank (A. S. T. M. Designation: D 388-38), m

1939 Book of A. S. T. M. Standards, pt. 3, p. 1-6: Philadelphia, Pa. 

.Averitt, Paul, Berryhill, L. R., and Taylor, D. A., 1953, Coal resources of the

United States (a progress report, October 1, 1953) : U. S. Geol. Survey Circ.

293, 49 p. [1954]. 

;Berryhill, L. R., and Averitt, Paul, 1951, Coking-coal deposits of the western

United States: U. S. Geol. Survey Circ. 90, 20 p. 

'Cade, C. M., 1953, The geology of the Marmaton group of northeastern Nowata.

and northwestern Craig Counties, Okla.: Tulsa Geol. Soc. Digest, v. 21, p.

130-148.

 Chance, H. M., 1890, Geology of the Choctaw coal field: Am. Inst. Min. Eng. 

Trans. v. 18, p. 653-661. -

 Coal Age, 1953a, Stripping low-sulfur coal: Coal Age, v. 58, no. 4, p. 92-96.

 1953b, Machine loading on long faces: Coal Age, v. 58, no. 6, p. 84-88. 

Collier, A. J., 1907, The Arkansas coal field: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 326, 158 p.

 Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, 1951, The synthetic liquid fuel 

potential of Oklahoma, 231 p.

.Dane, C. H., Rothrock, H. E., and Williams, J. E., 1938, Geology and fuel resources of the southern part of the Oklahoma coal field, part 3, The QuintonScipio district, Pittsburg, Haskell, and Latimer Counties: U. S. Geol. Survey 

Bull. 874-C, p. 151-253.

Davis, J. D., and others, 1944, Carbonizing properties of Western region Interior 

province coals and certain blends of these coals: U. S. Bur. Mines Tech. 

. Paper 667, 138 p.

Davis, J. D., and Reynolds, D. A., 1941, Carbonizing properties of McAlester 

bed coal from Atlas No. 2 mine, Henryetta, Okmulgee County, Okla.: Okla. 

Geol. Survey Mineral Rept. 12, 8 p.

 : 1942, Carbonizing properties of McAlester bed coal from Dow No. 10

mine, Dow, Pittsburg County, Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey Mineral Rept. 15,

10 p. 

Drake, N. F., 1897, A geological reconnaissance of the coal fields of the Indian

Territory: Am. Phiios. Soc. Proc. v. 36, p. 326^19. 

Dunham, R. J., and Trunijbull, J. V. A., 1955, Geology and coal resources of the

Henryetta mining district, Okmulgee County, Okla.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull.

1015-F, p. 183-22$ ' ,';

Eavenson, H. N.,. 1942/^The first century and a quarter of American coal industry : Kopper.s-Bldg.^Pittsburgh, Pa., privately printed, 701 p.

% / - N \ *: '', Fitts, K. W. Jr., 198JO, Dja^Moines and older Pennsylvanian rocks of northeastern

Oklahoma: A^enepfei. Soc., 1950 Field trip guidebook, 44 p.
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 369

Fuller, M. L., 1920, Carbon ratios in Carboniferous coals of Oklahoma, and their 

relation to petroleum: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 15, p. 

225-235.

Hendricks, T. A., 1935, Carbon ratios in part of the Arkansas-Oklahoma coal 

field: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 19, p. 937-947.

 1937a, Geology and fuel resources of the southern part of the Oklahoma 

coal field, part 1, The McAlester district, Pittsburg, Atoka, and Latimer 

Counties: U..S. Geol. Survey Bull. 874-A, p. 1-90.

 1937b, Pennsylvanian sedimentation in Arkansas coal field: Am. Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 21, p. 1403-1421.

 1939, Geology and fuel resources of the southern part of the Oklahoma

coal field, part 4, The Howe-Wilburton district, Latimer and Le Flore

Counties: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 874-D, p. 255-300. 

Hendricks, T. A., Dane, C. H., and Knechtel, M. M., 1936, Stratigraphy of

Arkansas-Oklahoma coal basin: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v.

20, p. 1342-1356. 

Hendricks, T. A., and Parks, Bryan, 1937, Geology and mineral resources of

the western part of the Arkansas coal field: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 847-B,

p. 189-224.

 1950, Geology of the Fort Smith district, Arkansas: U: S. Geol. Survey 

Prof. Paper 221-E, p. 67-94.

Hendricks, T. A., and Read, C. B., 1934, Correlations of Pennsylvanian strata 

in Arkansas and Oklahoma coal fields: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 18, p. 1050-1058.

Hopper, The, 1954, Names of Oklahoma coal beds: v. 14, no. 8, p. 120^-132, 

Norman, Okla.

Howe, W. B., 1951, Bluejacket sandstone of Kansas and Oklahoma: Am Assoc. 

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 35, p. 2087-2093.

Jewett, J. M., 1941, Classification of the Marmaton group, Pennsylvanian, in 

Kansas: Kans. State Geol. Survey Bull. 38, p. 285-344.

Kansas Geological Society, 1937, Guidebook llth annual field conference, southeastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma, September 3-6, 108 p.

Knechtel, M. M., 1937, Geology and fuel resources of the southern part of the 

Oklahoma coal field, part 2, The Lehigh district, Coal, Atoka, and Pittsburg Counties: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 874-B, p. 91-149.

 1949, Geology and coal and natural gas resources of northern Le Flore 

County, Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey Bull. 68, 76 p.

Miser, H. D., 1954, Geologic map of Oklahoma: U. S. Geological Survey.

Moore, C. A., 1947, The Morrow series of northeastern Oklahoma: Okla. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 66, 151 p.

Moore, R. C., 1948, Classification of Pennsylvanian rocks in Iowa, Kansas, 

Missouri, Nebraska, and northern Oklahoma: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 32, p. 2011-2040.

 ,1949, Divisions of the Pennsylvanian System in Kansas: Kans. State 

Geol. Survey Bull. 83, 204 p.

Moore, R. C., and others, 1951, The Kansas rock column: Kansas State Geol. 

Survey Bull. 89, 132 p.

Moose, J. E., and Searle, V. C., 1929, A chemical study of Oklahoma coals: 

Okla. Geol. Survey Bull. 51, 112 p.

Morgan, J. L., 1955, Spores of McAlester coal: Okla. Geol. Survey Circ. 36, 54 p.

Nuttall, Thomas, 1821, A journal of travels into the Arkansas Territory: Philadelphia, Pa., 296 p.
370 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

Oakes, M. C., 1940, Geology and mineral resources of Washington County, 

Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey Bull. 62, 208 p.

 1944, Broken Arrow coal and associated strata: Okla. Geol. Survey Circ. 

24, 40 p.

 1952, Geology and mineral resources of Tulsa County, Okla.: Okla. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 69, 234 p.

 1953, Krebs and Cabaniss groups, of Pennsylvanian age, in Oklahoma:

Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 37, p. 1523-1526. 

Oakes, M. C., and Jewett, J. M., 1943, Upper Desmoinesian and'lower Missourian

rocks in northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas: Am. Assoc.

Petroleum Geologists Bull., v. 27, p. 632-640. 

Oakes, M. C., and Knechtel, M. M., 1948, Geology and mineral resources of

Haskell County, Okla.: Okla Geol. Survey Bull. 67, 134 p. 

Pierce, W. G., and5 Courtier, W. H., 1937, Geology and coal resources of the

southeastern Kansas coal field: Kans. State Geol. Survey Bull. 24, 122 p. 

Rothrock, E. P., 1925, Geology of Cimarron County, Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey

Bull. 34, 110 p. 

Rutledge, J. J., and Harrington, Daniel, 1918, Suggestions for improved methods

of mining coal on Indian lands in Oklahoma: U. S. Bur. Mines Tech.

Paper 154, 36 p. 

Schoff, S. L., and Stovall, J. W., 1943, Geology and ground water resources of

Cimarron County, Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey Bull. 64, 317 p. 

Scruton, P. C., 1950, The petrography and environment of deposition of the

Warner, Little Cabin, and Hartshorne sandstones in northeastern Oklahoma : Am. Jour. Sci., v. 248, p. 408-426. 

Siebenthal, C. E., 1908, Mineral resources of northeastern Oklahoma: U. S.

Geol. Survey Bull. 340, p. 187-228. 

Shannon, C. W., and others, 1926, Coal in Oklahoma: Okla. Geol. Survey

Bull. 4,110 p. (Revised and edited by C. L. Cooper.) 

Taff, J. A., 1901, Description of the Coalgate quadrangle, Oklahoma: U. S. Geol.

Survey Geol. Atlas, folio 74, 6 p.

 1902, The southwestern coal field: U. S. Geol. Survey 22d Ann. Rept., 

pt. 3, p. 367-413.

 1905, Progress of coal work in Indian Territory: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull.

260, p. 382-401. 

Taff, J. A., and Adams, G. I., 1900, Geology of the eastern Choctaw coal field,

Indian Territory: U. S. Geol. Survey 21st Ann. Rept., pt. 2, p. 257-311. 

Tomlinson, C. W., 1929, The Pennsylvanian system in the Ardmore Basin: Okla.

Geol. Survey Bull. 46, 79 p.

United States Bureau Of Mines, 1923-31, Mineral resources of the United 

States.

___ 1928, Analyses of Oklahoma coals: U. S. Bur. Mines Teen. Paper 411,

62 p.

 1932-52, Minerals Yearbooks.

 1046, Typical analyses, bituminous CORl produced HI diStl'iCtS 12, 14, and 

15 : U. S. Bur. Mines Data Boolt, v. 7, 74 p.

 1954, Minerals Yearbook 1952: v. 2, Fuels, 450 p.

umted states congress Documents, 1910, Coal lands in Oklahoma: 61st Gong.,

2d sess., S. Doc. 390, 374 p. 

umted states Geological Survey, 1882-93; 1900-1922, Mineral resources of the

United States.

 1894-99,16th to 21st Annual reports.
371

 1935, Mine workings on segregated coal deposits, Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in Oklahoma (19 parts; revised in recent years) : On open 

file at U. S. Geol. Survey office, 509 S. 3d St., McAlester, Okla.

 1945, Oklahoma water; prepared by the Water Resources Division, U. S.

Geological Survey, for the Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board, 145 p. 

Wilson, C. W., Jr., and Newell, N. D., 1937, Geology of the Muskogee-Porum 

district, Muskogee and Mclntosh Counties, Okla.: Okla. Geol. Survey Bull. 

57,184 p.

TABLE 7. Occurrence by bed, county, and rank, of coal included in estimate of the

coal resources of Oklahoma

[H, M, L indicate high-, medium-, and low-volatile bituminous coal in bed and county indicated]

 Counties

Coal beds

Lower Witteville 

Unnamed bed above CavaCavanal(?)._. _____ ...

Unnamed bed below CavaStigler(?).. ....,.--._.....-.

Stigler.... ..................

Lehigh..... ...... ...........

03

1 

 <

H

TT

H

1 

O

H

H

U)

2 

o

TT

Haskell

H

HM

ML

Latimer

H

H

TT

H

Le Flore

M

M

M

M

M

LM

L

M

L

LM

HML

Mclntosh

F

Muskogee

TT

TT

Okfuskee

H

Okmulgee

TT

TT

H

Pittsburg

H

F

H

TT

H

f

«

H

TT

H

Sequoyah

M

M

M

1

H

H

Wagoner

H
372 CONTRIBUTIONS 'TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

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COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA 373

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2174 CONTRIBUTIONS TO' ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

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CO

00

8

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CO

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CO

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rH OO rH

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t CO rH

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Hartshoriie Upper 

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CN

CO

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re

£

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S

o

Total........... ..

ssss

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CO CO CO

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Hartshome I/ower . _

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s

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S

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8

CO

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cr

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Total... .....-----.

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COCNO5

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p

CO

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1

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County totals ..--.._ 

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CO

88

CO

S

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S

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CO

1

?3

CN

TH

5)

S

§

1

§

1

§

co1

CO

CO

CO

o

CO

8

ri

05

Grand total-----__ 
375

w " ' * &" r'A -

*- » * - j>«

Le Flore Cunty ..... ..... _ ..

rH IO O 

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5125

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222

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0-1,000 

1, 000-2,00 000-3, 2, 000

i

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S

CO

8

8 

2

S

rH

CO

CM

CO

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o

CO

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Tntnl

S S

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IN 

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Unnamed bedabove Cavanal ____ .

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?§2

2

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CBrH

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8

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Cavanal __ ._

3

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CO

j

V

£

S

S

$

I

S

S

5

g

CO

j

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CO

CO

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CO

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CO

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533

COrH

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CO

N

CO

1

53

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 *

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CO 

CO

CM

2

K

0-1,00 

000-2, 1,000

i

Unnamed bedbelow 

Cavanal ___ ..

Total...............

55 51 S

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9

c

oc

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r

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t- «

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pq 

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McAlester _______

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9

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23

8

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Upper Hartshorne.--. Total.... ........

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CO

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Upper Hartshorne. ...

CO

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CO

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376 CONTRIBUTIONS TO ECONOMIC GEOLOGY

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0-1,000 1,000-2,000 2,000-3,000

Hartshorne Upper 

totals..-- ----- 

S

1

3

co

CO

§

3

S

§

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CO

S

IO

CO

CO

fs

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Lower Hartshorne.- -.

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10

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8

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10

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Lower .Hartshorne.- - 

IO

CO

CO

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fHtN"

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Hartshorne- Lower 

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i

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9

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So

s

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£5

N

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3

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1

3

%

8

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$

S

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CO 

CO

CN

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0

Total...- -.-

SRS

jo|g

S3

ss

5^g

§

010 COCN

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1OCOCN

c5°co

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coooio

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loioco i-ieO'H

sss

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82

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CN CO lO 

COIN

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t~ tH

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r-llft 

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0-1,000 

000-2,00 1,2,000-3,000

Hartshorne Lower

totals.

CO

Tl< 

t 1

CO

CD

3

00

CO

?5

CO «<

8

§

N

o

tN

CD

85

IO 

CN

g

r^

s

s 

£

s

2

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CO

g

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CO

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CN

g

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Total, all" ranks...-. " 

SS§

§§^

«D i-<O> 

i^OO«D §5;^

sss

co o>>-< t->oco

S^S

ss^

Scoo>

oo»oo OOCTICO

!N

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^§?3

CNOOCO 

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S?i3

cdtOTiS t^ooco

i-(ioiO

CO COO

S3 S

S

>oo> CO'0

CN t^CO

>oco

ss^ g^ 10

CNOOCO 

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§

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00-^1

COCO

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ss 

gs

2Sg^

com t-40

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0-1,000 

000 000-2, 1,000 000-3, 2,

County totals.........

9

§

S

£i-i

S

$

cl

1

"Ot^

i

<M

0

(N

00

I>Tf

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CO 

CD

S

§

8 

S

5S

3

s

g

CN

O

S

3

S 

^ tCO f-4

s

total......... Grand 
COAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMA

CO I S

d

S

o

S

S

c

1

2

m

' IE

_ c

0

S 

CD

8

CC

CO

CO

co

CC

CO

&IN

pi

|

PQ 

W

^

CO

N

O

CC

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1

WWW E>E

WWW

tyo

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WSW
TABLE 8. Estimated remaining reserves of coal in Oklahoma as of January 1, 

Coal bed Rank« Overburden 

(feet)

Reserves, in millions of short ton

Measured

14 to 

28 

inches

28 to 

42 

inches

More 

than 

42 

inches

Total 

measured 

reserve

Indicated

14 to 

28 

inches

28 to 

42 

inches

More 

than 

42 

inches

Total 

indi; 

cated 

reserv

Pittsburg County

Total...-.

Total.... ......_.

Upper Hartshorns.. __

Total...- .........

Lower Hartshome.

Total ---.

County totals...... _

Grand total...... ..

HVB

HVB

HVB

HVB

HVB

0-1,000

0-1, 000

], 000-2, 000

2, 000-3, 000

0-1,000

1, 000-2, 000

1,000-3,000

0-1,000 

1,000-2,000

2,000-3,000

0-1,000 

1,000-2,000

2,000-3,000

0-1,000

1,000-2,000 

2,000-3,000

3.09

O.48

.12

0.60

0.10

O.10

0.30

0.30

3.97

.12

4.09

2.88

25.24

8.41

33.65

2.41 

.30

2.71

3.43 

.67

4.10

33.96

9.38

43.34

8.94

13.21

.62

22.77

1.48

1.48

23.03 

3.10

26.13

33.45

16.31 

.62

50.38

5.97

34.66

21.74

.62

57.02

3.99 

.30

4.29

26.76 

3.77

30.53

71.38

25.81 

.62

97.81

26.57

0.78

6.52

7.30

6.29 

3.26

1.54

11.09

0.61

-...-...

0.61

34.25

9.78 

1.54

45.57

23.65

1.04

1.04

29.88

102. 31

44.47

176. 66

5.02 

5.11

1.03

11.16

2.82 

17.38

16.11

36.31

62.41

124.80 

61.61

248.82

0.62

0.62

3.38

30.19

7.40

40.97

0.64 

.70

1.34

20.48 

33.96

9.52

63.96

25.12

64.85 

16.92

106. 89

50.2

1.6

1.6

34.0

139. 0

51.8

224. 9

11.9

9.0

2.5

23.5

23.9

51.3

25.6

100.8

121. 7

199. 4

80.0

401.2
Rogers County

Croweburg __ . _ ...

County totals .......

HVB

HVB

HVB

0-1,000

0-1,000

4.73

4.82

.62

10.17

4.73

4.82

.62

10.17

17.14

9.09

.13

26.36

17.14

9.09

.13

26.36

Sequoyah County

Stigler... ............. MVB 

MVB 

MVB

Croweburg _ ... __ .

0-1,000 

0-1,000 

0-1,000

HVB 

HVB

1.49

.42

1.91

0-1, 000 

0-1,000

4.38 

1.87

6.25

-

-

1.49

.42

1.91

3.24

.37

.55

4.16

3.24

.37

.55

4.16

Tulsa County 

 

4.38

1.87

6.25

654

8.88

15.42

6

KA

8.88

1 *\ 49

Wagoner County 

HVB 0-1,000 10.05 10.05 14.21 14.2

1 HVB, high-volatile bituminous ; MVB, medium-volatile bituminous ; LVB, low-volatile bi
v e-
INDEX

Page

Acknowledgments_______________ 316 

Analyses, Henryetta coal bed_________ 353 

lignite . . 360,361 

Morris coal bed_.___________ 352 

Oklahoma coal, by county and bed, averages. ---....__ 343 

Anticlines. . _ 330-340 

Areas excluded from estimate_______ 322-324 

Arkansas coalfield, estimate of original reserve._______________ 327 

Atoka coal bed. ________________ 344 

Atoka formation................ 331-332,336,337,340

Backbone anticline. ........__.. 331,340,344,346

Bellamy coal bed__________..____ 355 

Bovier coal bed________________ 357 

Blocker coal bed_______________ 351 

Bloyd shale, coal in___.__....__..__ 332

Boggy formation..........__.__.... 334-335,351

Bluejacket sandstone member. __ 334,337,350

Inola limestone member_________ 335

Bokoshe syncline_______________ 332

Brazil anticline....... ............... 332,347,348

Broken Arrow coal bed .__....... 356-357; pi. 17

Cabaniss group..... 331,335,336,337,339,355,356,357

Calculation, reserve estimates___ 318,321-322 

tonnage estimates_ ___________ 321-322 

Calvin sandstone_______________ 337 

Campbell, M. R,., estimate of coal resources

 of Oklahoma___________ 324-326 

Carbon fault................................. 340

Carter County, coal.....-........---.--.... 359-360

Cavanal coal bed..........-..--.--. 334,349-350,366

Oavanal syncline........................... 334,348

Cedar Blufl coal bed....................... 339,359

Chanute formation..-.._________ 339

Checkerboard limestone___________ 339 

Cherokee coal bed. ____............. 355

Cherokee formation.__................... 333,336

Cherokee group...___._________ 354,357 

Choctaw thrust fault___._____.__... 340 

Cimarron County, lignite.................. 360-361

Classification of coals by rank.............. 317-318

Coal beds, Henryetta mining district___ 351-354 

northeastern Oklahoma...._____.. 354-359

southern part of Oklahoma coalfield... 341-351;

pi. 16

Coal mining.. . 361-368 

Coalgate anticline.__________-_.- 346 

Coffeyville formation....................... 339,359

Corps of Engineers, estimate of coal resources

of Oklahoma................... 326-327

Crowder coal bed_..._..____-...._ 351

Croweburg (Broken Arrow) coal bed___... 322, 

325,337, 354,356-357; pi. 17

Dawson coal bed_______________ 325, 

336,339,354,358-359,363; pi. 17

Page

Dewey formation.!_________._.... 339 

Dip of the beds. See Structure. 

Drainage____________________ 329 

Drywood (Bellamy) coal bed_ 355

Eram coal bed -...--..-...__.__.. 336,351-352

Faults........... ..... 339-341

Fleming coal bed_______________ 356 

Folds.. ....... 329,339-341,348

Fort Scott coal bed __.... . ..... 357

Fort Scott limestone.... . 336,337,357; pi. 16

Geologic information, status._____. .322-324

Hartshorne coal bed..___....__ 324,332,344-346

Hartshorne sandstone__.. 331,332,336,340,343,345 

Hartshorne syncline_______ .. . 344 

Henryetta coal bed..........__...- ... 323,

325,336,352,353-354,356; pi. 17 

Henryetta mining district__________ 316, 

341,351-354,362,363,366-367 

Henryetta-Schulter faulted anticline_____ 341,

353; pi. 17

Hogshooter limestone._.___ .. 339 

Holdenville shale... .. . 337,339

Indian lands, segregated______..-. .... 326 

Indicated reserves, definition.._____... 319-320 

Inferred reserves, definition_________ 320 

Iron Post coal bed-....__......_....... 322,357

Jones Creek coal bed_____________ 361

Kiowa syncline. ._______ - 351 

Krebs group. .. 331,333,336,337,340,355,356,357 

Krebs syncline..___.____ . 351

Labette shale. ..._......._.....__... 337

Lehigh coal bed....... ...... ...... 346,347

Lehigh mining district . . 344,346 

Lehigh syncline__...............___.. 344,346

Lenapah limestone._______......._. 337

Lexington coal bed..... ... 339,358

Lignite in Cimarron County.... ... 360-361

Location of Oklahoma coalfield......... 309,327-329

Lone Star anticlinel........ 331

Lower Hartshorne coal bed__. 332,341-345; pi. 17 

Lower Witteville coal bed.......... . 335,350

MeAlester formation....... 331,332-334,345,346,349

Cameron sandstone member.- .-. . 334 

Keota sandstone member.... 334

Lequire sandstone member_______. 334 

Little Cabin sandstone member__ 333,337,355 

McCurtain shale member.....____. 333-334

Tamaha sandstone member....... 334

Warner sandstone member.. 333,337, 355; pi. 16

McAlester (Lehigh) coal bed.... 324, 

334,341,346-347; pi. 17

381
382 INDEX

Page

Mapping of coalfield area.. ___.. __ 322-324 

Marmaton group__.__.__.__.___ 337,339 

Massey co'al bed__..__.____...___ 351 

Measured reserves, definition_.__. ____ 319 

Methods of estimating reserves ___. ___ 316-322 

Milton anticline . 331,340,344,348 

Mineral coal bed_________...____ 356 

Mining methods .--.--.._ . 363,366 

Morris coal bed......_.__.--.....-.. 323,336,352

Morrow group____.._.__._...... 337

Mulky coal bed..... . 357

Nellie Ely formation.- - 339 

NortheasternfOklahoma/coal .beds... __.. 354-359 

Nowata shale________________... 337

Oklahoma coalfield, general information__ 327-330 

Oologah limestone.______________.. 337

Pawpaw coal bed ...._..__.__.... 355

Penitentiary fault. _____________.. 340,346 

Pilot coal bed.._--.----....--.--..-.....-.. 356

Population 330

Precipitation.......__.-..-----.-....---.--- 330

Production of coal....--. --___ 361-363,364-365

Purpose of report_________.__.-...-.. 308

Quinton coal bed '.. _-__-_----- 351

Bank of coal, determination..... ....... 317-318

Becoverability in mining...--..-.----..-..- 366-368

Relief.. 328-329

Reserves, distinction between measured, indicated, and inferred. _-._..--- 319-320 

distinction between original, remaining,

and recoverable.---.---------.. 320-321

distribution...-...-..-......-.-..---.... 311

estimated remaining, Jan. 1, 1953....... 372-379

methods of estimating__________ 316-322 

summary of estimated.. .... 309,312-314

Rlverton coal bed-.------------.-.--..--..--- 355

Rowecoal bed.._____________.__ 350,355

Page

Sansboissyncline..____._________ 334,351 

Savanna anticline... _____________ 340,347 

Savanna formation....___ 331,334,349,350; pi. 16

Spaniard limestone member. ___ __ 334,337 

Secor coal bed ... .. 335,350-351

Seminole formation..__._.__._____ 339 

Senora formation....................... 331,335-336

Breezy Hill limestone member__------ 357

Chelsea sandstone member. _. __.. _ 337

Verdigris limestone member________ 337

Source of information_.__......._.... 315-316

Stigler coal bed .. . 334,346,347-348 

Stigler(?) coal bed.. . . 348-349 

'Stratigraphy, northern-part of Oklahoma coalfield... 336-339; p]. 16

southern part of Oklahoma coalfield . 330-336;

pi. 16

Structure, northern part of Oklahoma coalfield 341

southern part of Oklahoma coalfield.... 339-340 

Stuart shale.----..... . ... 331,335,336,351 

Synclines - 329, 339-340

Temperatures----..-.-----.... .... 329-330

Thayer coal bed_________________ 359 

Thickness of beds......- 318-319

Thickness of overburden...... ..... ... 319

Thurman sandstone. 331,335,336,351 

Tonnage estimates, calculation ------------- 321-322

Topography.-..-..---.-----.---------- 328-329

Transportation.. . . 330,361 

Tulsa coal bed...... . .. 358-359

Upper Hartshorne coal bed ....- 332,344,345-346

Upper Witteville coal bed - - ------ 335,351

Uses of coal 345,348,363

Weight of coal...... ... 318

Weir-Pittsburg coal bed..... 355,357-358

Wetumka shale.._ 337

We woka formation....... _- . 337

o