Rolling Mill Mine

Last updated February 19, 2019

The Rolling Mill Mine was a drift portal coal mine in operation in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, operating from approximately 1856 until 1931. It was originally owned by the Cambria Iron Company and was developed in the Westmont hillside across the Conemaugh River from the company's rolling mill. Its portal was near the confluence of the Stonycreek River and Little Conemaugh River. It supplied the bulk of the coal used in the iron and steel making taking place in the city, producing an average of 3,000 tons a day in 1902, and primarily employed recent immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.

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.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania Place in Pennsylvania, United States

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, 43 miles (69 km) west-southwest of Altoona and 67 miles (108 km) east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census and estimated to be 20,402 in 2013. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County.

Cambria County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 143,679. Its county seat is Ebensburg. The county was created on March 26, 1804, from parts of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Somerset Counties and later organized in 1807. It was named for the nation of Wales, which in Latin is known as "Cambria".

Explosion

On Thursday, July 10, 1902, at approximately 11:00 a.m., a powerful explosion occurred in the Klondike section of the mine, and ultimately 112 miners, 84 of whom were immigrants from England, Poland and Slovakia, lost their lives. The explosion was attributed to what miners refer to as firedamp, a methane gas mixture. Killed immediately were those miners working in the Klondike section. Many other miners, as well as the vast majority of mine animals, were killed by an asphyxiating gas called afterdamp ^[1] that spread through the mine as they fled to the Millcreek Portal, several miles away, the only other exit from the mine. In fact, only seven of the deaths in the disaster were caused by the explosion; the rest were caused by afterdamp. The mine was re-opened on Monday, July 14, but the disaster devastated the immigrant community in Johnstown and provoked calls for investigations and greater safety measures from public officials and even foreign governments. The Rolling Mill Mine Disaster still ranks as one of the most deadly mining accidents in the history of the United States.

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres (120,733 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of approximately 38.5 million people, Poland is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.

Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi) and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5.4 million and consists mostly of Slovaks. The capital and largest city is Bratislava, and the second largest city is Košice. The official language is Slovak.

Firedamp is flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the name given to a number of flammable gases, especially methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata, and when they are penetrated, the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a "bag of foulness".

Closure

The mine continued in operation until 1931, when the portals were sealed after it was worked out. At the end it was known as Mine #71 of the Bethlehem Mines Corporation, which in more recent times was known as BethEnergy.^[2]

Entrance

One of the original entrances to the Rolling Mill Mine can still be seen on the James Wolfe Sculpture Trail, which runs down Yoder (Westmont) Hill near the incline and directly across from the Point Stadium. Coal was transported to the nearby Iron Works through this portal on a company-built trestle.

The Johnstown Inclined Plane is a 896.5-foot (273.3 m) funicular in Johnstown, Cambria County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The incline and its two stations connect the city of Johnstown, situated in a valley at the confluence of the Stonycreek and the Little Conemaugh Rivers, to the borough of Westmont on Yoder Hill. The Johnstown Inclined Plane is billed as the "world's steepest vehicular inclined plane", as it is capable of carrying automobiles, in addition to passengers, up or down a slope with a grade of 70.9 percent. The travel time from one station to the other is 90 seconds.

Point Stadium is a baseball park in the eastern United States, located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The "Point" refers to its location is at the confluence of the Little Conemaugh, Stonycreek, and Conemaugh rivers. It is home to the annual All-American Amateur Baseball Association (AAABA) national baseball tournament and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown's NCAA Division II college baseball team. It is also a venue for football, primarily at the high school level.

Related Research Articles

Portage is a borough with home rule status in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Ebensburg and 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Altoona. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,638 at the 2010 US census.

Westmont is a borough in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,181 at the 2010 census, down from 5,523 at the 2000 census.

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Jerome is a census-designated place (CDP) in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 779 as of 2010. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Jerome is part of the municipality of Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, as are the nearby towns of Davidsville, Thomas Mills, Tire Hill, Seanor, Hiyasota and part of Holsopple.

The Johnstown Flood occurred on May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, releasing 14.55 million cubic meters of water. With a volumetric flow rate that temporarily equaled the average flow rate of the Mississippi River, 2,209 people, according to one account, lost their lives, and the flood accounted for $17 million of damage.

The Conemaugh River is a 70-mile (110 km) long tributary of the Kiskiminetas River in Westmoreland, Indiana, and Cambria counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It crosses both the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and the Johnstown, Pennsylvania metropolitan area. The name means 'Otter Creek', originating from the Unami-Lenape language word kwənəmuxkw 'otter'.

Little Conemaugh River river in the United States of America

The Little Conemaugh River is a tributary of the Conemaugh River, approximately 30 mi (48 km) long, in western Pennsylvania in the United States.

Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by firedamp, which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust. It consists of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. Hydrogen sulfide, another highly toxic gas, may also be present. However, it is the high content of carbon monoxide which kills by depriving victims of oxygen by combining preferentially with haemoglobin in the blood.

The South Fork Dam was an earthen work dam on Lake Conemaugh, an artificial body of water near South Fork, Pennsylvania, United States. On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam failed catastrophically and 20 million tons of water from Lake Conemaugh burst through and raced 14 miles (23 km) downstream, causing the Johnstown Flood.

Spangler, Pennsylvania was a town, since merged, and former borough located in the northwest corner of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is nestled in the valley of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River between hills of the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. The area was first settled by Europeans in the early-to-middle 19th century. The presence of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River allowed loggers to move their harvest down river. Small farms developed and the town came into existence in 1893 when mining of extensive bituminous coal fields in the area became the dominant industry. The mining companies required skilled workers and many came from Great Britain and Eastern Europe. Railroads were built to transport the coal and the town flourished from economic activity.

Mine rescue or mines rescue is the specialised job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured in underground mines because of mining accidents, roof falls or floods and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp.

Wehrum, Pennsylvania human settlement in United States of America

Wehrum is an abandoned coal mining company town in Buffington Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania that thrived for a time during the early 20th Century. The mine upon which it was entirely dependent closed in 1929, and the last known inhabitants left in 1934. Essentially all that remains of Wehrum today are shadowy remnants of some of the streets and various building foundations hidden in the woods. Wehrum is considered to be one of Pennsylvania's ghost towns.

The Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown, Pennsylvania was a major 19th-century industrial producer of iron and steel. Founded in 1852, it had the nation's largest steel foundry in the 1870s, and was renamed the Cambria Steel Company in 1898. The company used many innovations in the steelmaking process, including those of William Kelly and Henry Bessemer. The company was acquired in 1923 by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The company's historic facilities, extending some 12 miles (19 km) along the Conemaugh and Little Conemaugh Rivers, are a National Historic Landmark District.

The Brunner Mine disaster happened at 9:30am on Thursday 26 March 1896, when an explosion deep in the Brunner Mine, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South island. It killed all 65 miners below ground. The Brunner Mine disaster is the worst mining disaster in New Zealand’s history.

The Bedford Colliery disaster occurred on Friday 13 August 1886 when an explosion of firedamp caused the death of 38 miners at Bedford No.2 Pit, at Bedford, Leigh in what then was Lancashire. The colliery, sunk in 1884 and known to be a "fiery pit", was owned by John Speakman.

The Johnstown flood of 1977; also known as the second great flood of Johnstown, and the Johnstown disaster, began on the night of 19 July 1977 when flash floods hit the area of Cambria County, around Johnstown, Pennsylvania and the Conemaugh Valley. Nearly twelve inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours, when a thunder storm stalled over the area. With the failing of six area dams nature was able to do what area residents had been convinced could not happen again.

The Mammoth Mine disaster or Frick Mine explosion occurred on January 27, 1891 just after 9:00 AM in the Mammoth No. 1 mine in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Newspapers reported that firedamp was ignited by a miner's oil lamp, resulting in the deaths of 109 men and boys. Most of the miners were not killed by the force of the explosion, but rather were suffocated by the effects of afterdamp.

References

↑ The Rolling Mill Mine Disaster, by Steven Pavlik
↑ Johnstown: The Story of a Unique Valley, Karl Berger, M.D., editor. Privately published by the Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown, PA, Copyright 1984. Library of Congress catalog number: 84-82116. No ISBN available; out of print.

Coordinates: 40°19′48″N78°55′37″W / 40.330°N 78.927°W / 40.330; -78.927

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[1] The Rolling Mill Mine Disaster, by Steven Pavlik

[2] Johnstown: The Story of a Unique Valley, Karl Berger, M.D., editor. Privately published by the Johnstown Flood Museum, Johnstown, PA, Copyright 1984. Library of Congress catalog number: 84-82116. No ISBN available; out of print.