Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-05-09
The Anthracite Country
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

| Wilkesbarre, Pa, May 5.-The min
ers and operators seem to have adjust.
ed their differences, at the time this
Is written, and the work of the great
anthracite mines is going forward as
usual. The threatened strike has
called attention for a moment to one
of the most remarkable sections Of
American Industrial life. For the min
ing Of anthracite coal is an all-Ameri
can story, which had it's beginning
back in the days when the farmers
of Schuylkill discovered that the black
rock would burn and which has grown
great with the nation.
! A hundred and forty years ago no
one knew of the existence of anthra-
cite coal. But long before that time
| eastern Pennsylvania was compare
, lively populous and sturdy farmers
titled the lands in the valleys of the
! Schuylkill and the Wyoming. The
farm lands were not of the best and
there were many outcroppings of a
| hard, black rock that interfered with
their blowing.
1t was just before the revolution
that hunter was lost one night on
chilly mountain side near the Schuyl.
i
and dozed off, When he awoke in the
morning he found that the stump had
burned away, but. to his surprise. the
broken ledge of black rock just above
, it had been transformed into glowing
bed of Goals. The rock, in fact, had
caught fire and was burning.
! The hunter carried the story of the
burning rock to Obadiah Core, black
smith Of Wilkesbarre, and Obadiah
put some of the black rock OF his
pasture into his forge and it burned.
| 1t was half generation later that
Judge Jesse Fells Of Wilkesbarre used
I this black rock as fuel in the manu-
facture of nails. It was another half
/ a generation before local enthusiasts
foated two barge loads of this rock
coal down to Philadelphia and offered
. it for sale. 1t was tried by several
! householders without success and
finally broken up and used for grav-
cling garden walks.
It was less than century ago that
these pioneers in the anthracite re-
gion built a CRATE that made 1t pos.
sible to get SUFFICIENT draft beneath
this hard coal to make 1t burn. This
was the forerunner of all those hun
dreds of thousands of furnaces that
burn only anthracite coal. It was the
thing that built an industry in which
! is invested a billion dollars, which
yields a hundred million a year and
which produces freights for railroads
amounting to half that sum annually.
1t is upon this rock that burns, this
coal Of great hardness that has been
built that remarkable community
which supports such towns as Scran-
ton, Wilkesbarre, Carbonate. Halle
ton. Pottsville and dozen others. All
of these towns are pitched IN little
valley which, roughly speaking, Is five
miles wide and sixty-five long, val
ley which probably produces more
wealth than any other similar area In
the world.
| All the anthracite coal in the world
| is in this little valley. During all the
ages, when the geologic forces of the
past were working to fashion the
world of the present, there was appar-
emily but one spot where conditions
were such as to form this black rock
1 that burns. Soft coal is far flung,
but anthracite exists here only in
marketable quantities.
J Beneath the floor of this valley there
are from eight to twelve layers OF
coal, from two to twenty feet thick,
and running down nearly two thou
sand feet On the surface are green
fields, trickling streams, thrifty vii
lagos Beneath them all are tier after
tier of mining operations, tens of thou
| sands of miners working at different
depths, maze of shafts and tunnels,
of railroad systems, Of drainage oper-
ations, of artificial ventilation-teem-
ing ant hills Of human industry that