Burnside Colliery is located 2.5 miles south of Shamokin in Coal Township, Northumberland County, on the Big Mountain Improvement Company tract.
The colliery was opened with a drift on the Topsput Mammoth Vein by Stephen Bittenbender Son & Company in 1863. The first shipments of 20, 257 tons was made in 1864. A second drift was opened later on the Primrose Vein. In 1865, crews sank a slope 170 feet to the first level of the North Dip Top Split Mammoth Vein to the first level and mined east and west gangways to their boundaries.
In 1871, Isaac May & Company came into the possession of the colliery and in 1872 sank a second slope 225 feet on South Dip Top Split Mammoth Vein to the first level and gangways were driven to their boundaries.
In 1872, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company supervised and at its own expense staarted a water-level tunnel southward 2,160 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, which reached the Buck Mountain Vein in 1874, when it was suspended.
In 1875, Isaac May & Comapny sank an inside slope 675 feet on the Holmes Vein to the basin coal at the west end of the colliery.
In 1878, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company took possession of the colliery and began developing it for a large production.
In 1884, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company started driving the gangways on the veins cut in the water-level tunnel in the bottom split and Buck Mountain gangways, and mined this area extensively. Also that year they extended the South Dip Top Slope West Track to the second level. In 1889, this slope was extended a total length of 832 feet to the third level.
in 1897, the company sank the main shaft that reached the first level at 166 feet, second level at 448 feet and the third level at 724 feet on the Skidmore Vein.
On March 26, 1933, all pumping was suspended and the shaft’s third level was abandoned. To prevent the Burnside water from flowing into the adjoining Sterling Colliery, a drainage tunnel was driven.
From July 17, 1933, to January 14, 1935, the Burnside water was diverted through this tunnel to the Big Mountain Colliery shaft pump on the second level. A brick dam was erected in the tunnel and the Burnside Colliery was abandoned.
Total shipments from Burnside as of 1928 were 12,965,738 tons.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, February 1 & 2, 1997.
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