Porterville Quadrangle
Mining in the Porterville Quadrangle
The town of Porterville was originally named East Berlin. In 1850, Richard Porter opened a blacksmith shop, and the town was known locally as Porterville. The town is shown on state road maps as Eaton, after the 1852 postmaster John Eaton. The town name on the quadrangle map is shown as “Porterville (Eaton)”, and the topographic map is currently named Porterville Quadrangle.
Both the Bristol Hill Coal and the Flannigan Coal were mined in Crawford County, but an entirely different coal may have been mined in the Porterville Quadrangle. Law’s coal bank operated before 1882, and was almost certainly a small mine for personal or local use. The coal was about 3 feet thick, but with a shale parting that ranged from 2 inches to 3 feet thick, and the coal was soft and “subject to a good deal of waste in mining”. Even less is known of the other two mines, merely the depth and thickness and mine locations.
Map and Directory PDF Download
Coal Mines In Illinois Porterville Quadrangle