Pittsburgh Coalfield

This is the grandaddy of the Western Pennsylvania Coalfields. Coal was mined in Pittsburgh in the mid-18th century (circa 1760 at Mount Washington), and in the 19th century the Monongahela Valley was dotted with numerous mines. Not many beehive coke oven plants were constructed in the Pittsburgh field. However, U.S. Steel, National Steel, and Betheleham Steel owned such metallurgical coal mines as Maple Creek, Mathies, and Ellsworth, respectively. One of the primary companies in this field was the Pittsburgh Coal Company. This company went bankrupt fighting the UMWA, merged with Consoldiation Coal Co., and became Consolidation Coal Co. (Consol). Coal mining in this coalfield continued into the twenty-first century with the opening of Murray Energy's High Quality Mine in 2003 (which clashed with the DEP and closed in 2004). And Consol's mine No. 84 was one of the last major coal mines in the Pittsburgh Field when it closed in 2009.

I know that the Pittsburgh Field has been subdivided into smaller fields, such as the Panhandle field, as is illustrated on some maps like the one I saw on the wall in the Heinz History Center back in 2003 (and 2023). But my 1916 USGS map treats the whole area as one big Pittsburgh Field and so shall I. It basically contains the coal mines under the city of Pittsburgh, the South Hills of Pittsburgh, the Burgettstown District, the lower Monongahela valley (downstream of Newell), the Pigeon Creek district of Washington County, and the lower Youghiogheny River valley (below Perryopolis).

Map of the Pittsburgh Coalfield

From "The Coal Industry" magainze, September 1919, titled, "Pittsburgh the Greatest Coal Center":

"Pittsburgh, the greatest coal, steel and industrial center in the world has become during the week beginning September 29 the mecca to the technical and operating men of the mining industry...

"Many of the mines of Western Pennsylvania are operating almost without the use of horses or mules, all coal being transported by mechanical methods. The haulage ways are so well lighted that they resemble the streets of a great city. Brick and concrete is being used to arch the shaft bottoms and many of the entries and workshops which would have done credit to manufacturing establishments of recent years are found many hundred feet under ground. Lathes, shapers, hammers and equipment superior to that found on the surface at large mines a few years ago are now located in the large underground machine shops. Much of the coal from the openings of later years is being hoisted by means of skip hoisting and the most improved types of coal handling, cleaning and screening equipment is very much in evidence, proving that the coal operator is making an effort, in the Pittsburgh district, to give value received to the consumer and that he is, as never before, investing in machinery for larger and better production...

"The pick method of mining, or undercutting, has become obsolete and is a recollection with most of the men in the district. The most modern undercutting machines are doing the work, formerly done by the miner, and increasing the output to a marked degree. All manner of mining machines are operated under the varying conditions prevalent in this district...

"Emergency hospitals which are an improvement over the general wards in city hospitals a few years ago, are not uncommon at the mines. These hospitals with physicians and trained nurses extend the influences in the form of emergency first aid packets into the pockets of workmen in the most distant working places under the hill."