KANAWHA-COAL RIVER COALFIELD

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.

Early 21st Century operations that I remember in the Kanawha-Coal River Field include Eastern Associated's Black Stallion, Lightfoot No. 2 mines, and 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 Chess 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 Energy's Power Mountain/Alex Energy, to mention just a few. A lot of coal poured out of this coalfield 1995-2010.

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TOWNS AND SUB-REGIONS:

BARRETT

BEARDS FORK

BLACK BETSY

BOOMER

BURNWELL

CABIN CREEK

CANNELTON

CARBONDALE

CLINTON

CLOTHIER

COLLINSDALE

DECOTA

DOROTHY

EUNICE

GALLAGHER

GORDON

HAREWOOD

HIGH COAL

JODIE

KIMBERLY

KINGSTON

LEEWOOD

MAHAN

MILBURN

MONTCOAL

MUDDLETY (CATHERINE COAL TIPPLE)

NELLIS

PLYMOUTH

POWELLTON

PRENTER

RAVEN-PEERLESS

RED WARRIOR

STANDARD

VANETTA

WEIRWOOD

WHARTON

WIDEN

WILLIS BRANCH

MINES ON CABIN CREEK

MINES ON PAINT CREEK

MINES IN POWELLTON HOLLOW

MINES IN COAL RIVER DISTRICT

MISCELLANEOUS

SOUTHERN WV COALFIELDS

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