Fairmont Coalfield

Another coal field focusing on the thick Pittsburgh seam of coal (and Redstone, Sewickly, and Waynesburg), the Fairmont Coalfield has been shipping coal since the 1850's, and was a source of coal to the Union Army during the Civil War. I am under the impression that some of the coal in the eastern portion of the coalfield has been considered a metallurgical coal, though not as good as the Pittsburgh coal around Connellsville, PA. Moving northwestward the coal morphs into steam coal only. Some maps show the area around Philippi as a seperate coalfield, but Conley's "History of the West Virginia Coal Industry" lumps it in with the Fairmont Field. This coal district was the setting for the worst coal mining disaster in American history - the Monongah mine disaster. There were 362 workers of that mine killed in an explosion in 1907. The Monongahela River is navigable above Fairmont, and coal has been barged from the Fairmont Coalfield to Pittsburgh region and beyond. Other means of shipping coal from the Fairmont field were the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, Western Maryland Railroad, and the Monongahela Railway. After the Consoldiated Coal Company merged with the Fairmont Coal Company, Consol was and continues to be the dominating coal company in this region. Coal is still being mined in the 21st Century at American Consolidated's Marion County Coal Resources (former Consol's Loveridge), American Consolidated Natural Resources's Harrison County Coal Resourcecs (Former Consol's Robinson Run), and Core Natural Resources's Leer South, among others. (I hate these 21st century names for coal companies that have been created by marketing departments.)