Western Middle Anthracite Coalfield

March 2025 image by author
Empty city streets in my obligatory picture of Centralia. Until the 1980s, these streets would have been full of houses and businesses. From the late 1980s until into the 21st century, the town was abandoned and demolished due to an underground mine fire that started in the 1960s. The heat and carbon monoxide laden smoke made the town uninhabitable. In the background, up on a hill, is the still functioning Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church. For some reason, this church has erected signs discouraging anyone but their congregation from visiting the church.

Many words have been written over the years about the mine fire at Centralia, Pa. But what coal mines were located there? Centralia was a boro, not a company town. However, Centralia Colliery was located at the eastern edge of town, and Hazel Dell Colliery to the south east. Further east was the Continental mine. Logan Colliery was on the western side of Centralia.
A tunnel was driven through the various mines in the Centralia area in 1890s to drain area mines into Big Mine Run. This predated the construction of the more well known Jeddo Tunnel in the neighboring Eastern Middle Anthracite Coalfield the next year.
The first mines in the Centralia vicinity opened in the 1850s. They were the Locust Run Mine and Coal Ridge Mine.
Sources vary from 1857 to 1862 as to when Joseph M. Freck opened Centralia Colliery. Freck was the operator until the early 1870s, when the mine flooded. The breaker burned in 1870 and had to be rebuilt. After several years of being inundated with little to no production,a Dr. G.M. Provost bought the colliery, pumped and drained the water, and by 1878 coal was being mined again. Provost sold Centralia Colliery to Lewis A. Reilly (sometimes spelled Louis and Riley) in 1880. Except for 1881, when it was operated as Reilly, Lilley, & Lentz, this colliery was under the Lewis A. Reilly & Co. banner until the mid-1890s. Lehigh Valley Coal Co. purchased Centralia Colliery from Reilly and mined anthracite coal through underground and stripping methods into the early 1930s. At the bottom of the Great Depression, Centralia Colliery may have been idled. Centralia Collieries Co. brought it back to life in 1935, and ran it for a few years. During World War 2, Mahahony Coal Mining Co. was the operator. By the end of the war, Centralia Colliery was getting rather old. Centralia Mining Co. took over and deep and strip mined, sometimes cleaning the coal at other nearby and more modern breakers. The culm banks were remined. The tiny C.Q. & W. Coal Co. mined in the area in 1949 and processed their coal in the aging Centralia breaker. In 1955, the property was leased to Coates Coal Co., and they took Centralia Colliery to its end in 1962, ending a century of anthracite coal mining. Also toward the end, George Racho remined a small tonnage of coal from the Centralia culm dump in 1960 and processed it at nearby Diamond Breaker.
To the south of Centralia Colliery was Hazel Dell Colliery, which was opened circa 1860 (sources vary from 1855 to 1862). Landowner Locust Mountain Coal & Iron Co. leased the land and mineral rights to Robert Gorrell. By 1873, it was operated as Gorrell & Norton. Groundwater inundation plagued the Centralia mines around 1875 and '76 and Hazel Dell was no exception. In the late 1870s, George Troutman took over the mines and brought production numbers back up. At this time, state mine records show a Hazel Dell East and Hazle Dell West. Sykes & Jones were the next operators in the mid 1880s. Lewis Reilly (also known as Riley) & Co., owners of Centralia Colliery, operated Hazle Dell from 1886 to 1889, when the underground works were merged with Centralia Colliery and the breaker demolished. Someone named Kaul & Hall did the clean up work and last mining in 1890. You would think that would be the end of the Hazle Dell story, but almost 70 years later a small firm named Debbie Lance Coal Co. produced a small tonnage of coal from Hazel Dell slope portal in 1959 and '60.
Out past Centralia Colliery to the east, the Continental Colliery opened in 1863 by Robert Gorrell, also the owner of Hazel Dell. Gorrell had Continental until J.T. Audenreid became the operator in 1878. In 1882, Lehigh Valley Coal Co. made Audenreid an offer he couldn't refuse, and they mined and shipped anthracite coal from Continental Colliery into the early 20th century. Hazle Brook Coal Co. took over in the 1930s, and they produced large amounts of tonnage by underground and surface methods. Hazle Brook closed the underground Continental mines in 1954. Then Sanchez Coal Co. strip mined the Continental reserves from 1956 to 1965. After Lehigh Valley Anthracite Co. stripped in 1965 and '66, a century of coal mining at Continental ended.
Finally, to the west of Centralia Boro could be found Logan Colliery and "patch town." Lewis Reilly & Co. (again) opened Logan in 1881. In the 1890s, Lehigh Valley Coal Co. became the operator (just like nearby Centralia and Continental Collieries). Lehigh Valley produced anthracite coal from Logan Colliery into the late 1920s. It wasn't until M.A. Hanna Co. started stripping the Logan reserves in 1948 that Logan produced any tonnage. Hanna's stripping lasted until 1958. Small strippers like C. Howansky & Paul Auskas and Paul Kerrigan completed the strip mining of Logan in the early 1960s. There never were a huge amount of company houses - perhaps only ten - and the Logan patch gradually disintegrated into nothing by the early 21st century.