INDIAN CREEK FIELD

The Indian Creek Coalfield (sometimes called the Indian Valley Coalfield) is a small coalfield situated in Saltlick, Springfield, and Stewart Townships in Fayette County, and Donegal Township in Westmoreland County. It is a medium volatile field focused on extraction of the Lower Kittanning seam, which averages 44 inches in thickness there. The railroads that took the coal from Indian Creek include the Indian Creek Valley Railroad (started in 1906 and abandoned in 1976), the Blair Brothers Railroad in Donegal Twp., and, of course, the Baltimore and Ohio running along the Youghiogheny River. Coal mining in the Indian Creek Field is now relegated to the occasional strip mine.

The "Bosses Row" at the Melcroft patch. Melcroft was coal mine originally operated by the Melcroft Coal Company. Their Melcroft No. 1 mine was in a section of Lower Kittanning averaging 43" in thickness.

Another part of Melcroft. This patch town differs from most others in that different shapes and styles of residential structures were constructed. There are one story houses further up Champion Creek from these.

Ruins of the Melcroft mine and tipple. By the 1940s the Melcroft mine was being operated by the Koppers Coal Division as Indian Creek No. 4.

Most of the remnants of the Melcroft mines have been reclaimed. This pump house, which is a distance up Champion Creek from the main mine site, still exists, however.

I'm not sure if this is another section of Melcroft or a neighboring patch named Romney.

This slate dump is one of the last vestiges of Indian Creek Coal and Coke Company's coal mining operations in the Indian Head area.

Here is the coal mining village of Indian Head, PA. I'm not sure which, if any, of the extant structures in this mountain village were built by the coal company.

A small coal refuse pile and a railroad right-of-way are all that's left to mark the spot of White Brige No. 1, a coal mine near Normalville that was active during the 1940s.

Here are the only remnants of the structures relating to the White Bridge No. 1 mine.

Acid Mine drainage from an abandoned mine in the Indian Creek Field.

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