The Richmond Coalfield was the first coalfield to be mined commercially in the United States of America. [1] [2] The coalfield is located several miles west of the city of Richmond, Virginia. Its bituminous coal seams are a part of the Richmond Basin, dating to the Late Triassic.
Discovered around 1701, commercial production began around 1748. Production was centered in the village of Midlothian, Virginia, established to serve the various mines in the area. With the rise of numerous coalfields in Appalachia, in particular the Pocahontas Coalfield in Western Virginia, coupled with the difficulties in mining the field, the mines eventually closed by 1927. Overall production is estimated at more than 8,000,000 short tons (7,300,000 t).
Richmond Basin | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: | |
Type | Sedimentary basin |
Unit of | Newark Supergroup |
Sub-units | Chesterfield Group; Tuckahoe Group |
Lithology | |
Primary | Sandstone |
Other | conglomerate, shale, bituminous coal |
Location | |
Region | Piedmont |
Country | United States |
Extent | 190 miles (310 km) |
Type section | |
Named for | Richmond, Virginia |
The Richmond Basin is a Late Triassic sedimentary basin, located west of Richmond, Virginia. [3] It is one of several Eastern North America Rift Basins dating to the Mesozoic era, forming the Newark Supergroup. Fossils of the Euscolosuchus were first discovered in the basin.
The basin extends across parts of Henrico County, Goochland County, Powhatan County, Chesterfield County, Amelia County, and Dinwiddie County, with the majority in Chesterfield.
As early as 1701, the coal deposits of the Richmond Coalfield were known to settlers, discovered by French Huguenots who settled in the Manakintown area. [1] Coal had previously been discovered in the 17th century in what is now Illinois. [1]
The first recorded coal production from the Richmond coalfield, and what would become the United States, dates to 1748. 50 short tons (45 t) were recorded mined that year.
By the end of the 18th century, coal mined in the field was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, where it was sold well into the mid-19th century. [1] [4]
Manchester Turnpike Chesterfield Gravity railway Richmond and Danville Railway, from Richmond, Virginia southwest toward Danville, Virginia.
Major companies involved included; Black Heath, Midlothian, Clover Hill, etc.
During the American Civil War, the mines supplied coal and coke for the Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond. In May 1864, Union Army officer August Kautz lead a cavalry raid targeting the Richmond and Danville Railway through Chesterfield County. After the destruction of the nearby railway station, one of the mines was tentatively ordered to be lit on fire by Col. Samuel P. Spear, though the order was soon rescinded. [5] [6] [7] [8]
The various mines suffered numerous explosions and fires. On February 3rd, 1882, the Grove Shaft exploded; the destruction was such that it was reported in the New York Times the next day. [9]
As a result of the significance of coal mining in the area's early history, a miner resting on a pick is in the center of the seal for Chesterfield County, Virginia. [10] Various place names remain from the era or were adopted later, including Coalfield Road. In the early 2000s, the remains of the Grove Shaft were preserved as part of the Mid-Lothian Mines Park, part of the county's public parks system.
Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court House.
Manchester is a former independent city in Virginia in the United States. Prior to receiving independent status, it served as the county seat of Chesterfield County, between 1870 and 1876. Today, it is a part of the city of Richmond, Virginia.
The Chesterfield Railroad was located in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was a 13-mile (21-kilometer) long mule-and-gravity powered line that connected the Midlothian coal mines with wharves that were located at the head of navigation on the James River just below the Fall Line at Manchester. It began operating in 1831 as Virginia's first common carrier railroad.
The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about 120 miles (190 km) east to west and 200 miles (320 km) north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very sparsely populated and is known for its rolling grasslands and semiarid climate.
Midlothian is an unincorporated area in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, Virginia south of the James River in the Greater Richmond Region. Because of its unincorporated status, Midlothian has no formal government, and the name is used to represent the original small Village of Midlothian and a vast expanse of Chesterfield County in the northwest portion of Southside Richmond served by the Midlothian post office.
Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is above water level and generally on the slope of a hill, driven horizontally into the ore seam. Random House dictionary says the origin of the term "drift mine" is an Americanism, circa 1885–1890.
The Somerset Coalfield in northern Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It is part of a larger coalfield which stretched into southern Gloucestershire. The Somerset coalfield stretched from Cromhall in the north to the Mendip Hills in the south, and from Bath in the east to Nailsea in the west, a total area of about 240 square miles (622 km2). Most of the pits on the coalfield were concentrated in the Cam Brook, Wellow Brook and Nettlebridge Valleys and around Radstock and Farrington Gurney. The pits were grouped geographically, with clusters of pits close together working the same coal seams often under the same ownership. Many pits shared the trackways and tramways which connected them to the Somerset Coal Canal or railways for distribution.
The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland including virtually all of the known mineable prime coking coal. It was named for the Bowen River, itself named after Queensland's first Governor, Sir George Bowen.
Black Heath was a house and coal mine located along the Old Buckingham Road in the present Midlothian area of Chesterfield County, Virginia. The Black Heath coal mining enterprises were operated by the Heth family between 1785 and 1844, when the mine closed following a fatal explosion.
The South Yorkshire Coalfield is so named from its position within Yorkshire. It covers most of South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and a small part of North Yorkshire. The exposed coalfield outcrops in the Pennine foothills and dips under Permian rocks in the east. Its most famous coal seam is the Barnsley Bed. Coal has been mined from shallow seams and outcrops since medieval times and possibly earlier.
Coal mining regions are significant resource extraction industries in many parts of the world. They provide a large amount of the fossil fuel energy in the world economy.
The mineral industry of Mozambique plays a significant role in the world's production of aluminium, beryllium, and tantalum. In 2006, Mozambique's share of the world's tantalum mine output amounted to 6%; beryllium, 5%; and aluminium, 2%. Other domestically significant mineral processing operations included cement and natural gas.
Telford Cut was an open-cut coal mine, now closed, in the Leigh Creek Coalfield in South Australia. For the 72 years between its opening in 1943 and its closure, the mine supplied sub-bituminous coal to fire power stations first in Adelaide then, from 1954, Port Augusta. Production ceased in November 2015 but stockpiled product was transported to Port Augusta until the last power station closed down in May 2016.
Coal mining in the United Kingdom dates back to Roman times and occurred in many different parts of the country. Britain's coalfields are associated with Northumberland and Durham, North and South Wales, Yorkshire, the Scottish Central Belt, Lancashire, Cumbria, the East and West Midlands and Kent. After 1972, coal mining quickly collapsed and had practically disappeared by the 21st century. The consumption of coal – mostly for electricity – fell from 157 million tonnes in 1970 to 18 million tonnes in 2016, of which 77% was imported from Colombia, Russia, and the United States. Employment in coal mines fell from a peak of 1,191,000 in 1920 to 695,000 in 1956, 247,000 in 1976, 44,000 in 1993, and to 2,000 in 2015.
The Waterberg Coalfield is an extensive deposit of coal in the Ellisras Basin in South Africa, lying mostly in the Waterberg District Municipality of the Limpopo province. Mining is increasing, both for export and for local power production, and industry in the region is expected to expand. This may have significant impact on the dry and fragile Limpopo basin ecosystems.
The Clover Hill Railroad was a railroad company that operated for 36 years in central Virginia near Richmond. The railroad was created to carry coal most efficiently from the Clover Hill Pits in Winterpock, Virginia, to further transportation points in Chester, Virginia, where it could be sold for a better price than on the Appomattox River in the Piedmont region. This made the railroad important to the Confederacy in the Civil War to ensure a supply of coal for munitions and iron working. The mines were dangerous for the miners, and many accidents occurred. The railroad had to be sold when coal mining declined so that new owners could find other uses for the railroad.
The Clover Hill Pits are a number of coal shafts and mines that operated in the Southside area of Richmond, Virginia from 1837 until around 1883.
The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad went bankrupt in 1905 and became the Tidewater and Western Railroad. The line survived until 1917 when it was pulled up and sent to France for the World War I effort. The Tidewater and Western Railroad carried freight and passengers along a route from Farmville, Virginia to Bermuda Hundred. The Tidewater and Western Railroad continued to have Western Union Telegraphs run along the rails. These connected to telegraphs on the Atlantic Coast Line along the East Coast of the US and to Europe.
The Richmond Basin was one of the Eastern North America Rift Basins. It lies over Swift Creek Reservoir from Interstate 64 to the Appomattox River.
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