PITTSBURGH FIELD

PITTSBURGH FIELD

This is the grandaddy of the Western Pennsylvania fields. Coal was mined in Pittsburgh in the mid-18th Century, and in the 19th Century the Monongahela Valley was dotted with numerous mines. Not many beehive coke oven plants were constructed in the Pittsburgh field. However later on U.S. Steel and Betheleham Steel owned such mines as Karen, Maple Creek, and Ellsworth. Without a doubt the primary company in this field was the Pittsburgh Coal Company. This company went bankrupt fighting the UMWA, merged with Consoldiation Coal Co., and became CONSOL. Coal mining in this coalfield continues into the twenty-first century with the opening of Murray Energy's High Quality Mine in 2003 (which clashed with the DEP and closed in 2004). And CONSOL's mine No. 84 continues to longwall it's way under Washington County now that the underground fire there is out.

I know that the Pittsburgh Field has been subdivided into smaller fields, such as the Panhandle field, as is illustrated on some maps like the one on the wall in the Heinz History Center. But my 1916 USGS map treats the whole area as one big Pittsburgh Field and so shall I. It basically contains the coal mines under the city of Pittsburgh, the South Hills of Pittsburgh, the Burgettstown District, the lower Monongahela valley (below Newell), the Pigeon Creek district of Washington County, and the lower Youghiogheny River valley (below Perryopolis).

THE TOWNS:

LINCOLN HILL