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EUREKA NO. 37, PA
Berwind White Coal Company's Eureka No. 37 coal mine and coal company village
were constructed circa 1899. This was one of the most productive mines in the Windber Coalfield, and
it produced coal until 1962. At one point No. 37 produced over 1/3 of the coal from Berwind White's Eureka No. 30 to 40 mines.
All that remains of No. 37's "upper" drift portal is the top of the cut stone lintel.
However, the partially exposed "lower" drift portal of No. 37 mine is more interesting.
Eureka No. 37 as seen through the trees from the other side of the valley.
In this view one can see the tipple ruins, part of the huge
slate dump, and a little bit of the coal company town behind the trees in the background.
A closer view of the Eureka No. 37 tipple ruins.
From another angle.
Retaining wall built out of railroad ties.
The Eureka No. 37 slate dump is one of the largest in Western
Pennsylvania ad is probably ripe for remining.
Someone is monitoring this slate dump.
Mine ruins abound at the site.
Stone walls from some kind of mine building - a lamp house or blacksmith
shop or something.
I'm not sure what part of the mine this served.
My guess is that was a dynamite or powder storage building. If I had been
a few years earlier I could have also seen the remains of the now-demolished bath house.
Maybe an electric borehole?
Yet more coal mine ruins.
These stairs accomodated miners walking down from the company town to the mine's drift portal
and colliery.
The HAER study claimed that this was a company store. A man on site, who
probably works for the company that is using it now, said it was the coal mine office. (He also let me park there.)
The duplex coal company houses are typical for Berwind White Coal Co. and
this region.
One thing that is different about these company houses on
the back row of Eureka No. 37 is the alternating gable and hipped roofs.
Company town back yards.
By 1910 the Eureka No. 37 mine had progressed underground far enough that a new fan shaft was necessary. This structure, now
enveloped in the suburbs of Johnstown, is left over from that shaft, named Shank Shaft. It is now being used as a township garage.
Sources:
Fitzsimons, Gray, editor. Blair County and Cambria County, Pennsylvania; An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites. 1990.
Apr. 2015 image by G.S.
Apr. 2015 image by G.S.
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