FREEPORT COALFIELD
This coalfield is named for the Freeport coal seam that outcrops along the Allegheny River in the vicinity of Freeport, PA. Coal people know
that there is an Upper Freeport and a Lower Freeport seam. It was believed that the two seams come together in northeastern Allegheny County to form the "Thick Freeport" or "Double Freeport" seam. However, there has
been some disagreement over that is true, or the Upper Freeport seam just thickens out here. The coalfield was not only blessed with major rail routes, but with a navigable river running right through it. There is still
some coal mining occurring in northwestern Westmoreland County and southwestern Armstrong County. Intensive development of the thick Upper Freeport coal area dates
from about 1900. The Cornell mine (No. 8) and the Creighton mine
(No. 12), in East Deer Township, the Harwick mine (No. 6), in
Springdale Township, and the No. 1 Bessemer mine (No. 15), in
West Deer Township, Allegheny County, and the No. 1 Valley Camp
mine (No. 10), in Lower Burrell Township, Westmorelaad County,
were in operation between 1901 and 1903. Bitter labor strife occured in the Freeport Field in the 1910s.
THE TOWNS:
