Category:Athensville-Quadrangle

MINING IN THE ATHENSVILLE QUADRANGLE

Mining took place in the Athensville Quadrangle before 1930, with many operating before 1873. The seam mined is not known. Some of the ISGS field notes used as a source for the mine locations thought the mining took place in the Colchester seam, but the layers discussed were similar to layers discussed in other nearby mines that were said to mine a “pocket coal”, a discontinuous lens of coal that often cannot be correlated to a named seam, and therefore the decision was made to not assign the mines to a particular seam. Most of the mines operated only a short time for local trade or personal use, but one mine (mine index 6435) was said to have operated for 40 years.