Commercial mining in the field began at Cannelton in the 1850s, and the Kanawha field is currently the No. 1 producing coal field in the state. The field encompasses Boone County, the Marsh Fork district of Raleigh County, Kanawha County, Clay County, and even parts of Nicholas County. The most important seams in these areas are the medium-volatile Eagle, No. 2 Gas, Cedar Grove, Coalburg, and Winifrede. Also, Conley lumps other areas in with the Kanawha Field, but these regions actually contain the coal seams mined in the northern part of the state, and as such are the southern most extent of these coals. These areas include the region from Elmwood to Raymond City in Putnam County, and also the Elk River valley (some maps refer to this as the Coal and Coke Field). Since the coals mined in these areas are different from that mined in the southern part of the Kanawha Field, I have divded the coalfield into upper and lower portions on the map.
Modern day operations in the Kanawha-Coal River Field include Eastern Associated's Black Stallion and Lightfoot No. 2 mines, Rivers Edge Mine, Independence Coal Company's mines and their prep plant Liberty Processing, Omar Mining up the hollow from that, Goals Coal, Performance Coal Company's mines, Marfork Coal Company, Elk Run Coal Company mines and Chesss Processing plant, Pine Ridge Coal Company's Big Mountain No. 16 Mine, the Dakota/Jupiter Operation, Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, Speed Mining, Kanawha Eagle's mines, Amvest's Fola Coal, and Massey's Power Mountain/Alex Energy, to mention just a few.
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