This is a generally exhausted coalfield in Jackson and Vinton Counties. After a modest beginning circa 1800 - 1820, the coalfield enjoyed a heyday from roughly 1875 to 1925, although minor surface mines still pop up every now and then. Most coal was produced from the No. 2 Quakerstown coal seam, but all of the seams numbered 1 through 7 have been mined to one degree or another. All three types of coal mining - shaft, slope, and drift - have taken place in the Jackson Coalfield. And, although there is next to no coal mining anymore, there is still the annual Wellston Coal Festival.
From "History of Industry in Jackson County" via JCOGS publicationsThe Comet Coal Co. opened the Comet No. 1 mine in 1881.Oct. 2004 image by authorAn underground coal car in front of the restored rail depot in Wellston.Public domain image by HAER [Historical American Engineering Record]The former store of the Wellston Coal Company.2017 image by authorCoal company houses in Wellston probably built by the Fluhart Coal Mining Co.2017 image by authorMore coal camp houses that housed the miners of Fluhart Coal Mining Co. Shaft No. 1.2017 image by authorI believe that this was the stack from the mine furnace of Wellston Coal Co. No. 1. Before the widespread use of huge fans to ventilate underground coal mines a furnace would move air through the mine by heating it.Circa 1938 American Mining Congress imageFor illustration purposes, here is a ventilating furnace at a coal mine of unknown location.2017 image by authorFormer location of the Milton Coal Company's No. 1 shaft in Wellston. The same company had a No. 2 shaft nearby, too.2016 image by authorProbably an original coal miner's house near Jonestown, Ohio. The structure still sports board and batten siding.Oct. 2004 image by authorThe names on these headstones at the Coalton cemetery are fine English, Scottish, and Irish names, suggesting that Eastern and Southern European immigration to the Jackson Coalfield was minimal.Image from a great book titled "History of the Coal-Mining Industry in Ohio" by Douglas L. CrowellThe company store in Coalton, Ohio as it looked in 1880.2016 image by authorThe company store in Coalton, Ohio as it looked in 2016.2016 image by authorRemaining coal company houses in Coalton.2016 image by authorThe only remaining gob pile I saw in the Jackson area. It was possibly from the Chapman Coal Company's Grace Mine.2016 image by authorThe former Dayton, Toledo, & Ironton Railroad.Image courtesy of J.Markiel @ www.oldindustry.orgThese coke ovens in Vinton County are believed to be the only ones of their type remaining in the world. These "Belgium Coke Ovens" were constructed of a brick that was designed and manufactured in Belgium and shipped to the Jackson Coalfield of Ohio. Their operation was to support the Vinton Iron Furnace, but the high sulfer coal of the area did not produce a satisfactory coke, and the ovens were abandoned.
