APPALACHIAN COALFIELDS>WESTERN PA>>PUNXSUTAWNEY COALFIELD

PUNXSUTAWNEY COALFIELD

Also known as the Reynoldsville Coalfield

1940 Library of Congress image by Jack Delano
The Baltimore and Ohio rail yard at the eastern end of Punxsutawney. The rail yard is still there in the 21st Century. However, it is not this busy anymore.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Coal cars and railroad trestles just south of Punxsutawney.

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 1900 or 1904 (conflicting source information).

2014 image by Justine Cherry
A small locomotive in the overgrown near the site of the Cascade mine. If this belonged to Cascade Coal and Coke, it could have pulled coal cars along their rail siding, or perhaps moved coal and coke cars around the coke works.

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)

2015 image by Mike Mance
Remains of the coke ovens. These appear to be "rectangular" ovens. Both beehive and rectangular ovens were present at the Cascade mine.

Nov. 2023 image by author
This small lake (or large pond) was constructed above the Cascade coke ovens to provide water to quench the hot coke.

Nov. 2023 image by author
The actual coal company houses for the Cascade mine were along what is now U.S. Route 119. They were demolished some time between 1973 and 1983. However, these houses next to site of the Cascade mine and coke ovens are still standing. While they were not built or owned by the coal company, they probably housed families that worked for Cascade Coal and Coke Co.

Nov. 2023 image by author
The Kovalchick family, well known in this part of Pennsylvania, has placed this underground coal car at the former Cascade mine site as a memorial to their family's coal mining history. Click here for high resolution image.

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.

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 1954. At its height, there were approximately 150 company houses at Helvetia. Rochester and Pittsburgh sold their company houses to Kovalchick Salvage in 1947 The number of homes had dwindled to 17 by 1989. Most were torn down around 1990 in anticipation of a surface coal mine that ended up being located on the east side of the community. In 2023 there were only two company houses, as well as this former company store, remaining.

Mar. 2019 image by Kevin Messner
Ruins of the Helvetia mine powerhouse.

Mar. 2019 image by Kevin Messner
Remains of a turnover car dumper from Rochester and Pittsburgh's Helevtia mine.

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

Nov. 2023 image by author
Former coal company "patch town" houses at Stump Creek which were constructed in 1922 (a somewhat late date for Pa. coal company towns) to house the mining families of Northwest Mining and Exchange Company's Kramer mine. The coal company sold the town, but not the mine, to Kovolchick Salvage Co. in 1950. The Kramer mine closed on May 15, 1959.

After the coal mine closed, Stump Creek appeared to follow the trajectory of decline of other discarded and forlorn coal towns. Even into the Space Age 1960s and '70s, Stump Creek residents continued to use outhouse privys. The aging water system was unreliable and leaky. Then a funny thing happened. The philanthropic non-profit Institute of Man and Science of Rensselaerville, New York purchased Stump Creek for $175,000. The organization's program director was quoted as saying, "It was unbelievably blighted. When you came into town, you smelled Stump Creek." The Institute obtained government grants and private donations to helped the residents buy and upgrade their homes, and also for a much needed new water and sanitary sewer system.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Some buildings do remain at Stump Creek from the Kramer mine. The structures were once the mine's wash house, hoist house, machine shop, car shop, and supply house. Approximately 600 coal miners worked at Kramer in the 1940s.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Architectural detail of the former Kramer mine wash house (bath house). Kramer mine was a shaft mine down into the low sulphur, low ash Lower Freeport aka "D" seam.

Google Street View image
At this modern coal loader near Punxsutawney, coal is trucked in from nearby (probably surface) mines, and is loaded into rail cars with front end loaders. The rail siding is out of site in the background.

Rossiter, Pennsylvania

Rossiter in its heyday. In the 1920s there was the usual trouble between labor and management. A hard nosed Indiana County judge (Jonathan Langham) had even issued a prohibition of the miners' union assembling, marching, and singing militant hymns at first on coal company property, then on other landowners' properties, and even in church.

Nov. 2023 image by author
The sign at the edge of Rossite, Pennsylvania says that it was named for the treasurer of the New York Central Coal Company. However, Mr. Rossiter was actually treasurer of the New York Central Railroad. Rossiter, which was opened in 1900 by the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation on 5000 acres purchased from Joseph Smith, did actually sell a great deal of coal to power NYC locomotives. Former coal company houses are in the background.

Nov. 2023 image by author
A statue of a saint (perhaps St. Francis of Assisi) overlooks the Rossiter community next to the Church of the Resurrection Catholic Church. This parish is actually a combination of Catholic churches in Rossiter, Heilwood, Glen Campbell, Ernest, and Clymer - all in Indiana County. This particular parish was probably originally St. Francis of Assisi, and the brick church and rectory probably replaced the earlier wood-framed ones.

There is also a Presbyterian church in Rossiter.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Streetscape of Rossiter coal company houses.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Detail of a coal company house that still features a few original four pane windows, original front porch, and cut stone foundation. The vintage asbestos siding is not uncommon in old Pennsylvania coal towns.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Here is another kind of house that Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. constructed at Rossiter, again still sporting asbestos siding. Apparently, this was a two family house, but not patterned on the duplex houses found in many other Pennsylvania "patch towns."

Nov. 2023 image by author
Management level houses.

Nov. 2023 image by author
On the other side of Rossiter can be found these single family coal company houses that resemble miner's homes in West Virginia and Kentucky. At least a few of them were constructed of hollow tile blocks. I believe that these were built later than the rest of Rossiter, perhaps in the late 1910s.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Former company store that Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. operated as Clearfield Supply Company. Pennsylvania state law required coal companies to operate their retail divisions as separate entities, whereas if this was in West Virginia or Kentucky the store would have probably been labeled, "Clearfield Bituminous Coal Store No. 4," or something like that.

Nov. 2023 image by author
The Brandon Hotel has been located on Rossiter's main street since at least the 1910s. In the 21st Century it mostly functions as a bar. Besides the Brandon and the company store, people were served by a bank, theater, roller skating rink, and a second hotel in the community's heyday.

Nov. 2023 image by author
Smokestack remaining from the mine's powerhouse. Clearfield Bituminous's mines at Rossiter were named Canoe Ridge Numbers 1 through 3 at first, then No. 4 and 5 were opened later. The underground mines were opened by 1900, and the 1900 Report of the Bureau of Mines stated, "—Three new drift openings on Canoe Creek with elec- tric and tail-rope haulage and compressed air mining machine, and a Stine fan for temporary ventilation. Mine was still under construction on my last visit, and promises to be a first class operation"

Nov. 2023 image by author
This building was orignally the Canoe Ridge mines repair shop. The underground mines were depleted in 1944 (not 1942 as other sources reported). Some strip mining of coal continued until 1946. In its last days the state listed the operator as New York Central Railroad Co. Mining Dept. rather than Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp.

Nov. 2023 image by author
The structure shown here is labled on old mine maps as both the Canoe Ridge garage & "ware room," and also "wash house."

Nov. 2023 image by author
Today Rossiter is a quiet suburb of Punxsutawney.

Nov. 2023 image by author