Spring Valley Quadrangle

Mining in the Spring Valley Quadrangle

An astonishing number of people fell down the shafts of Bureau County, most of them in the Spring Valley Quadrangle. The Spring Valley Coal No. 3 Mine (index 0242) hosted three of these deaths, one in 1887, one in 1893, and one in 1895. A suicide took place at the same mine in 1910, jumping into the shaft that was over 460 feet deep. In 1895, a 20 years old man accidentally fell down the shaft of Spring Valley No. 2 (index 2035). Another man was killed in trying to climb out of shafts and falling or being knocked off the buntons by the descending cage at the Spring Valley No. 3 Mine in 1904. Most counties had no more than 1 killed by falling down the shaft, if any.

The earliest mining in the Spring Valley Quadrangle was the Merrick Mine, which reportedly opened in 1857. The second mine was James Cahill’s mine (mine index 0358), also in Peru, La Salle County, which opened in 1879. All the mines in this area used the old longwall method to remove Colchester Coal. The coal was generally around 3 feet thick, but of much better quality than the shallower coals.