Berwind-White Coal Company office in downtown Windber
This fan is still extant at the site of Johnstown Coal and Coke's coal preparation complex at Allendale, PA.
Unfortunately, this tipple that was at the same site in Allendale has been torn down. (Public domain photo by Jet Lowe, Historic American Engineering Record)
Part of the coal mining village of Beaverdale, PA, where the Logan Coal Company operated. Michael writes, "I came across your website looking for historical information about the Johnstown Coal & Coke Company. I was shocked to find photos of tiny little Beaverdale, PA - even more shocked to see in your photograph my grandparents' old house. My family has a long history in Beaverdale; my great-grandfather died in a mining accident at the Beaverdale mine in 1956...According to my grandfather, Beaverdale was a private town, although the Logan Coal Company built stretches of worker housing throughout the town. The housing in your picture along Jefferson Avenue was Logan-built housing, including my grandparents' house...He said that further up Jefferson Avenue, in the opposite direction of the photo, the housing was private, not company-built. They also built some housing in the village of Onnalinda, further down PA-869 on the way to Blue Knob State Park and what he calls 'the Shaft house on the road to Portage.' My mother thinks that is on the road across the creek in Beaverdale near the Roman Catholic cemetery.
My great-grandparents moved into the house in the late 1920s when it was still owned by Logan Coal. They rented their half of the duplex for many years from the coal company with rent deducted from my great-grandfather's paycheck. My grandfather said that Johnstown Coke and Coal took over the mines in Beaverdale sometime in the 1940s. In 1953, the houses were placed up for sale and the miners that were renting were given the first option to purchase their half of the duplex or the entire home. My great-grandparents bought their half and my grandparents bought the other half.
The store in the background of the picture was in fact a company store. My mother said it was a company store through the late 1950s until it became a private store. My grandmother worked there when it was owned by the Mihalik family in the 1960s."
The Maple Ridge patch, up the track from Hollsopple, operated by the Maple Ridge Coal Co.
Parially covered mine portal from Somerset Coal Company's mine at Acosta, PA.
Monument in front of the Sipesville Fire Hall for the 9 coal miners rescued from the flooded Quecreek mine.
A few of the remaining patch houses in Baker-Whitely, PA. The Baker-Whitely Coal Company of Baltimore, MD began mining in this Shade Twp. location in 1911.
Three mines were in operation at Baker-Whitely: Elma No. 1, Elma No. 2, and Elma No. 3, the last of which was closed in 1952.
This sign at Baker-Whitely reads, "Reitz No. 11 Plant," which was a coal washing facility dating to the 1970s when the Elma No. 1 mine was reopened.
The ruins of the above-mentioned Reitz No. 11 Plant. In the background is active PBS Coal Company's Baker-Whitely strip mine.
Modern day coal mining in Somerset County: A dragline that is bigger than life mines coal on top of a mountain near Berlin, PA. To get an idea of the scale of this machine see if you can find the
Chevy Blazer sitting beside it.
This preparation plant is near the surface mine pictured above, off of Goodtown Road. It may or may not be idle. There are huge strip mines everywhere you look in this area.
Large single family company houses at Wilbur, PA, built by the Wilbur Coal Mining Company during the 1910s, housed the workers of the Knickerbocker No. 3 and No. 4 mine. Deep mining at Wilbur
ended in the 1950s, but surface mining of the coal continued for many years.