THE TOWNS:
FAIRMONT FIELD
Another coal field focusing on the thick Pittsburgh seam of coal, the Fairmont Field has been shipping coal
since the 1850s, and was a source of coal to the Union Army during the Civil War. Some maps show the area around Philippi as a seperate coalfield, but Conley's "History of the West Virginia Coal
Industry" lumps it in with the Fairmont Field. This coalfield was the setting for the worst coal mining disaster in
American history, the Monongah mine disaster. There were 362 workers of that mine killed in an explosion in 1907. The Monongahela River is navigable above Morgantown, and coal is
barged from the Fairmont Field to Pittsburgh. Another means of shipping coal from the Fairmont field included the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Consoldiated Coal Company (CONSOL) was and continues to be the dominating coal
company. Coal is still being mined in the Fairmont Field at CONSOL's Loveridge, Robinson Run, and Blacksville No. 2 mines, at Eastern Associated Coal Company's Federal No. 2 facility,
and at Anker Energy's Sentinel Mine.
THE TOWNS: