Campus Quadrangle

Mining in the Campus quadrangle was centered around the town of Cardiff. The Cardiff Coal Company (mine indexes 0757 and 4435) mined both the Colchester Coal and the Cardiff Coal. This is the type location for the Cardiff Coal, which is known to be found only in Northeastern Livingston, southeastern Grundy and western Kankakee Counties. The seam occurs in channels that trend northeast-southwest, and so has a limited areal extent (Willman, et al., 1975, p. 187). The Cardiff Coal is as much as 12 feet thick in parts of these mines. The Cardiff Coal and the Colchester Coal are separated by an average of only six feet of strata. This made it possible to drive blind slopes (underground slopes that do not reach the surface) into the Colchester Coal from the Cardiff Coal.

In 1903, a series of explosions caused the No. 1 Mine of the Cardiff Coal Company to close (mine index 4435), and the No. 2 mine was opened (mine index 757). The No. 2 Mine was primarily worked using the longwall method of mining in the deeper Colchester Coal, but some works did extend into the Cardiff Coal above.

Coal Mines In Illinois Campus Quadrangle