Coal Data: A Reference
February 1, 1995
A Brief History of U.S. Coal
Coal was reportedly used by the Indians of the Southwest long before the early explorers arrived in America. The first record of coal in what is now the United States is a map prepared in 1673-74 by Louis Joliet. It shows “charbon de terra” along the Illinois River in northern Illinois. About a quarter of a century later, in 1701, coal was discovered near Richmond, Virginia. A map drawn in 1736 shows the location of several “cole mines” along the upper Potomac River, near what is now the border of Maryland and West Virginia. Before the end of the 1750’s coal was reported in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Pennsylvania’s anthracite deposits were found about 1762.
Blacksmiths in colonial days used small amounts of “fossil coal” or “stone coal” to supplement the charcoal normally burned in their forges. Farmers dug coal from beds exposed at the surface and sold it by the bushel. Although most of the coal for the larger cities along the eastern seaboard was imported from England and Nova Scotia, some came from Virginia. The first commercial U.S. coal production began near Richmond, Virginia, in 1748, more than a century before the beginning of the domestic oil industry. By the late 1800’s, coal was being produced in most of the States.
Coal became the principal fuel used by locomotives. As the railroads branched into the coalfields, they became a vital link between mines and markets. Coal also found growing markets as fuel for households and steamboats. Another use of coal was to produce illuminating oil and gas. In 1816, Baltimore, Maryland, became the first city to light streets with gas made from coal. With the beginning of the U.S. coke industry in the latter half of the 1800’s, coke soon replaced charcoal as the chief fuel for iron blast furnaces. Briquetting of coal was introduced in the United States about 1870. Coal-fired steam generators began to produce electricity in the 1880’s. The first practical coal-fired electric generating station, developed by Thomas Edison, went into operation in New York City in 1882 to supply electricity for household lights
In the earliest mines, coal was quarried from beds that were exposed at the surface. To get more coal, the miners had to follow the coalbed underground. Before coal-cutting machines became available in the late 1880’s, coal was mined underground by hand. Mechanical coal-loading equipment introduced in the early 1920’s replaced hand loading and increased productivity. Mules and, to a lesser degree, horses and oxen were used to haul coal and refuse in and around the early mines; a few dogs were used in small mines working thin coalbeds. In time, the animals were replaced by electric locomotives, dubbed “electric mules,” and other haulage equipment.
Strip mining began in 1866 near Danville, Illinois, when horse-drawn plows and scrapers were used to remove overburden so the coal could be dug and hauled away in wheelbarrows and carts. In 1877, a steam-powered shovel excavated some 10 feet of overburden from a 3- foot-thick coalbed near Pittsburg, Kansas. In 1885, a converted wooden dredge with a 50-foot boom was used to uncover a coalbed under 35 feet of overburden. In 1910, surface mining was underway with steam shovels specifically designed for coal mining.