Long before draglines, dozers and strip mining appeared on the Clearfield County landscape, deep mining had its infant beginnings in the early 19th century.
Small shafts and drift mines were dug from place to place to extract high-quality coal from veins not far from below the surface of the earth.
Some of these mines were family or small partnership businesses. The local coal was first used for home heating, forges and to power steam engines or locomotives.
In 1805, a hand-built barge carried the first known load of coal on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to market.
Coal mining grew in Clearfield County to become the once dominant industry. That story is well known for both its positive and negative aspects.
Three main mine entrance shafts were sunk in Morris Township, in and around what was once known as Morrisdale Mines, to employ and support thousands of miners and their families, both native and foreign born.
Both the Pennsylvania Railroad extended its tracks into Morrisdale as did the Beech Creek Railroad, which was owned by the New York Central line. The coal cars in the photo are abbreviated to show that.
The Morrisdale Coal Company was a large operation with 10 mine openings. The photo shows Shaft No. 3. The initial company resulted from the work of James and Hobart Allport, David Holt, Richard Wigton and William Dorris. By the end of the 1870’s, the company was producing hundreds of tons of coal per day.
The inner workings of the shaft included a caged elevator used to lower and then raise men from the rooms and tunnels of coal below.
It was attached to a strong wheeled metal cable that was powered by coal-fired steam engine. Hence the smokestacks.
The shaft also housed weigh scales, screens and chutes for dumping coal into awaiting railroad cars. Bony was separated from the coal by the screens as well as men and often young boys. Mining then was dirty, tedious and too often a health and safety hazard to miners.
The Morrisdale Coal Company’s last remaining deep mine closed in 1958.