"The Underground".
It was by far one of the most popular stories that I have done. Aparently many people were intrigued about what lies beneath our hills. I have always been fascinated and even creeped out by what miners actually do. So many put their lives at risk to earn a living. Some however were not always working for a company to earn a wage. Mining long ago was a way of life if you lived on a farm long ago. With no commercial means of heating ones home early settlers and farmers relied on wood and coal to produce heat and to cook with. There are so many private mines around our county that when you look on a ODNR map they look like black x's everywhere. Some are noted as being private and some were privately owned but sold coal from them commercially. the few we are going to take a look at today are private mines on private property and are not listed on the ODNR website maps. My guess is these mines probably date back to the turn of the century or before and were used by the local farmers for heating their homes. They were large enough mines to probably sell the coal to others in the local settlement. You can see by the photos that these are very narrow mines.
Although some private mines used donkeys or mules to haul out coal most were much smaller and just big enough to crawl into on your hands and knees. The mine in the above picture probably was a little taller than it is now. Over the years the creek has washed mud and debris into the floor of the mine. As you can tell this was a pretty large coal seam the went under the hillside for hundreds of feet. Sometimes it would branch off to follow the coal or it would slope even deeper to another seam below it.
This little beauty in the middle of the woods looks like an old fireplace or some kind of a chimney. Upon closer inspection though it looked out of place for the woods.
Once I crawled down the stack it revealed something much more than a fireplace.
A hole in the earth that had been bricked over to protect the abandoned mine from water or unwanted visitors. The bottom of this stack was loaded with raccoon feces. I knew right away that there were probably some animals sleeping away inside on this sunny day. I ventured in only crawling in a few feet to get a few pics of the tunnel.
As you can see this mine runs at a slope back into the hillside several hundred yards if not more. Notice the coal seams on the sides. Most of all mines have water running through them and some are completely flooded. As I was taking photos of this mine I hadn't noticed something was watching me....
Here is a perfect example of why to never enter an abandoned mine. This is another mine close to those previously photographed. You can see how the top layer of sandstone collapsed in the very entry of the mine. Probably due to the freeze and thaw cycle of the environment near the entrance. This is common throughout the entire mine. Most of the coal was only excavated until a crack was noticed overhead in the sandstone or slate ceiling. Sometimes a wooden post was used to shore up the ceiling so more could be excavated. Most of the time though it was left for chance. Another thing to consider is the fact that coal weakens with exposure to oxygen. Often times pillars that were left for support are eroded by oxygen and can collapse over so many years.
All mines photographed here are local. They are on private property and are pretty hard to find. As much as the underground intrigues me I will never venture in any farther than I could safely. Knowing the dangers of abandoned mines is the first step in staying alive. Many thanks to Tim Conner for showing me around that nice day. He shares an interest in things that are hidden away and lost the same as I do.
Interesting article about the old mines.
ReplyDeleteBack in the mid-late 70's I found a few mines while out exploring by myself. One was just south of where the Calcutta Walmart is off of Dresden Ave. I probably wouldn't have found it but there was actually a little bit of mist coming out of it since it was very cold outside and warmer inside the mine opening.
The summer before that (in 1976) I found the remnants of a complete mining operation near West Point up the hill from the west fork of Beaver Creek. There were about four mine openings left open and a few others that had caved in. The rails and ties for the coal cars were still there with a few coal cars on them outside the mine. Also, a decent size gasoline engine in a shed that might have driven a compressor for ventilation but I'm just guessing about what its purpose. There were a few other mine artifacts lying around, too. It was a very interesting discovery to me and something I hadn’t expected to find that day.
A few days later me and another kid (I was 14 then) did go back into one of the nine openings but not too far. Of the ones that were still open it looked like the miners had filled the openings back to about 25 yards or so in filled with enough dirt and rock to keep anyone from walking back into the mine There was still enough room between that fill dirt and the ceiling to easily go in on hands and knees and there was enough room so that we could sit straight up on our knees in there.
There was water dripping from the ceiling on some spots and a few camel crickets hanging out around those wet spots. We got far enough back in there to where that tunnel angled down deeper into the earth and we stopped there. Even with a good flashlight we couldn’t see where it ended down there and with all things considered it kind of creeped both of us out. Right then we decided to just get the hell out of there! It was dumber than hell to even try going in there but we were just kids and not very wise. That was the first and last time I ever went into an abandoned mine.
Most of the mines closer to E. Liverpool were actually clay mines used to supply all the potteries they had around there back in the day.
Yep! These are the stories I love! Yes it was dumb but hey I was dumb also! My parents would have crapped if they knew the stuff I was doing at 13. I agree the old clay mines were way safer than the abandoned coal mines. Dresden you say? That was my old neighborhood. Many of my old timer neighbors old me to stay out of any holes in the ground up in the "woods". I listened to them until my buddies found coal car tracks in one... then I went in... I remember skinning through an opening that I had to let all of the air out myself to get through. I went back there a few years ago and couldn't believe I ever fit through the main opening let alone the tight fit inside. Not too smart on my part... Glad we lived to tell others not to go in..
ReplyDeleteThe mine on Dresden was the one near Wal-Mart that you have in your other story on mines. At the time I replied I hadn't yet seen your other mine article. At the time I found that mine opening Wal-Mart was not there but the land it sits on had been cleared and leveled. I don't know when the Wal-Mart was built but it was well after we left the area in the late 70's. I never realised how many underground mines existed in Columbiana County until looking at a DNR map of them in more recent years.
DeleteYes there are lots of mines under our area. I've heard from people that worked the mines near Irondale back in the late sixties. They talked about how the company disassembled trucks above ground and put them back together underground to move workers around. When the mine closed they abandoned the trucks underground. One person explained to me that it took a 30 minute drive underground to get to an area he had to work at. That alone gives you an idea how vast these mines are.
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