PUNXSUTAWNEY COALFIELD

Jefferson and Indiana Counties

Nov. 2005 image by author

The ruins of Cacade Coal and Coke Company's Sykesville mine on the edge of Sykesville in Jefferson County. A gentleman in the area told me that the mine closed in 1938, yet these remnants of the mine were still extant at the time of this photo. Actually it was Powhattan Coal and Coke Company who originally constructed the mine in 1904.

1911 image courtesy of MSHA

An explosion of the Sykesville mine in 1911 caused the death of 21 people. This picture depicts the aftermath of that disaster. Judging by the size and angle of the conveyor the preparation plant must have been huge.

At least some of the Lower Freeport coal mined here was coked in the company's coke ovens across the road from the mine. Some of the ovens were beehive ovens, and some were rectangular ovens. Industrial World in 1913 announced, "The W.G. Wilkins Company, consulting engineers...are preparing plans for the erection of 200 rectangular ovens of the pusher type, for the Sykesville Coke Company, at Sykesville, near DuBois, Pa...The new ovens will parallel those of the older company ..." And the pond that was constructed above the coke works for quenching the coke is still there to this day.

The coal mine and coke ovens were shut down circa 1939. Then an intersting thing happened:

"Ed Murphy, who operates a service station south of Sykesville, recalls, 'The ovens here at Cascade Coal and Coke were shut down before World War II, and no coke was made here after that except once, in 1950. I was still in school then, but I was working, and I got a job here at the old ovens on the property of Kovalchick [classic Western PA name - CTD] Salvage. At that time, some fellows wanted to see if coke could be made again, so they repaired four old ovens with new firebrick, and converted them so that they could be machine-drawn. The men involved sent all the way to Uniontown for an experienced coke burner to teach us all how to make coke, and we did make a little coke from coal brought over from Cramer. But there were union problems, and marketing problems, and they gave up and shut them down. That was the last coke ever make in Jefferson County.'" (From "History of Coke" By Eileen Mountjoy, IUP Libraries)

Nov. 2005 image by author

A few of the remaining homes in Adrian, PA, named for Adrian Iselin. He was one of the founders of the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company, who constructed this town to house the miners of the Adrian No. 1 mine in the Lower Freeport coal seam.

Nov. 2005 image by author

The houses on the other side of the street in Adrian. All of these houses have the same green siding, which may have been installed by the coal company many years ago.

1990 image by Scott Brown, courtesy HABS/HAER

This is how the coal company town of Rossiter, PA looked approximately 90 years after the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. built the town. The coal mines at Rossiter closed in the mid 1940s.

Image courtesy of Lesa

Lesa contributes this rare picture of the operations of the Panther Run Coal Company at Pardus, PA. Lesa says, "At one time the Panther Run Coal Company was big enough to have company houses and a school."

Google Street View image

As seen here the coal company store at Helvetia, PA has been converted to a private residence. Note the old concrete sidewalk, which was a luxury in most coal mining patch towns at the time. The Rochester & Pittsburg Coal & Iron Company operated the coal mines at Helvetia from around 1900 until the 1950s.

Image by others

Coal tipple and patch town at Walston, Jefferson County, Pa.