LOWER YOUGHIOGHENY FIELD
This small coal field (approximately 66 square miles), located in the northwestern corner of Maryland, had a few
small truck mines along the Youghiogheny River, served by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Kendall Branch. However, the construction of the dam and Yough Lake obliterated all of this. There was one large mine, and
possibly some company housing that went with it - the McCullough Coal Corporation's McCullough Mine No. 1 - which was opened from 1915 until 1942. The McCullough Mine was in the Upper Freeport seam of coal, and the Lower
Kittanning and Waynesburg seams have also been mined in the Lower Youghiogheny Coal Field. About this coalfield the Maryland Department of the Environment says, "Mining
activity in this basin has been minimal in the past, but is increasing." However, this coalfield has been and still is unimportant when compared with other coalfields in Appalachia.
This land near Glade Road was strip mined but is revegatating nicely. Judging by the size and
extent of the trees, it was probably stripped during the 1980s.
A portion of a map showing a portion of the McCullough coal mine complex a few miles south of Friendsville, MD. The tipple was a distance from the mine,
and is not shown here. (Courtesy of Maryland Coal Mine Mapping/Frostburg State University)