Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-10-15
The Coal Fields Of Ohio.
liners Jonrnal PottsyilIe. Pa

u ~ 4 .. H.
/ The coal measur es of Ohio embrace an
area of nearly 10000 square miles, and
extend over thirty-three of the eis hty-
eight counties of the State. The regions
most extensively developed are the
Mahoning Valley Region, the Tusca-
rawas Valley Region, the Ohio Valley
and the Hooking Valley, but there are
many important districts in addition,
situated mainly on the Pittsburgh b and
Cleveland railroad at Salineville in Co
Elumbiana county, and around New
philadelphia, on the Miles and New
Lisbon road, in the same county. On
the line of the Pan Handle at Coshoc-
ton in Coshacton county, and along the
Ohio Division of the Baltimore and
Ohio, at Cambridge, in Guernsey co.
There are; from ten to twelve veins
of minable coal, along the line of the
Ohio river, the aggregate thickness OF
the coal rocks here reaching its thick
est part, and near the village of Il Bell
aire, is found the basin of the Great
Allegheny Coal Fields, The Goals most
eagerly sought for and mined, are the
lower Goals of the fields, as they are on
the edge of the great coalless region,
north and west ',7n1A ,.oO . = n = "
The lower coal vein, sometimes call
ed Birds Hill Coal, ,isa mined very ex.
tensively in the Mshoning Valley,
around the young Iron city of YOungs-
town. The same seam is mined with
lvigor around Massilion and Akron, in
lStark and Summit counties, and in
Jackson and Vinton countless In the
Mahoning Valiay it is fine open-b burn
ing coal, especially adapted for smelt-
ing iron in ara W state. All the mines
are shaft openings, seldom, however,
exceeding 200 feet of depth. The coal
is very irregular as to thickness, and is
very frequently wanting altogether. 1t
lies in long and slnuous swamps or
troughs, cropping out on the sides OF
the troughs, growing gradually thin
ner with each yard ofadvance from the
Swamp basin. Many of the swamps
are not more than one or two hundred
yards in width while others will eX-
tend for many hundred yards without
giving signs of exhaustion. Along the
long course they run for miles, but
the line of fracture is sometimes trOu-
bled with horsebacks and other rock
faults. LsN.H
The Hooking Valley Coal Region is
second in its annual production. This
coal, which is the sixth Of the series, is
of noble height and quality. AT Straits
vile, in Perry county, it is fully eleven
feet of average thickness, and it is
adapted for smelling iron as it comes
from the miners pick. The chief mi
ming centers are near Nelsonville, in
Athens county; Straitsville, in Perry
county; and Shawnee, in Perry county.
nd hox
have been opened up within few
years. The coal is everywhere reach
ed by drift openings, the seam lying
from thirty to sixty feet above the
base of the hill. No hoisting machine
ry nor pumps are used or needed.
Southwark, however, in the line of the
dip of the coal, it goes under the
surface at all parts, but this magni-
ticent coal can be reached over an area
greater than that of the whole Anthra-
cite Region of Pennsylvania, without
shafting to greater depth than $50 to
200 feet perpendicular. The coal gives
off no water, no fire-damp, and little
of the other mineral gases. and has
fine roof and floor. This is destined at
no distant day to become great mi
ming and manufacturing region. There
is an abundance of iron ore and lime
stone associated with the coal rocks.
The mines along the Ohio Valley ex-
tend from Stcubenville to PoIneroy,
and number nearly fifty. At Steuben-
Vile the mines are shafted reaching
from I8O to 25O feet of depth. The coal
is from four to six feet thick; much of
it is converted into coke at the pits
There are nine coal shafts here. |
The seam of coal is the one immediate |
" below the Pittsburgh vein, from
which it is separated by about $50 to
100 feet of strata. The Pittsburgh coal
Is found in the bluffs fronting the river.
Toward Bellaire all the main openings