A circa 1922 photograph showing the method of installing cable in Shaft No. 3 headframe at the Draper Colliery.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The Draper Colliery, originally the Mahanoy Valley Colliery, was located south of Gilberton on the south side of the Mahanoy Creek.
The Mahanoy Valley was the original name of the colliery and it was opened by a water-level tunnel driven 688 feet south to the North Dip Mammoth Vein by H. R. Smith in 1860.
Smith failed in 1862 after making his first shipment of 8,420 tons.
In 1862, the Mahanoy & Boston Coal Company came into possession of the colliery and it was purchased by the Mammoth Vein Consolidated Coal Company, which continued the operation.
In 1865, the Mammoth Vein gangway was driven 1,050 feet eastward to within 1,200 feet of the west gangway of the Boston Run Colliery.
In 1869, the Mammoth Vein Consolidated Coal Company sank the slope 410 feet to the first level and, in 1870, it sank the second slope 450 feet.
The first slope was for hoisting coal. The coal slope was operated with a single track at top and bottom and a passing track for ascending and descending cars in the middle of the slope.
In 1871, the company failed and the colliery was purchased by the Hickory Coal Company and Smith, Almon & Company which changed the name of the colliery to the Draper Colliery.
They continued mining the first level to its boundary and, in 1873, miners extended the coal and pump slopes 300 feet to the second level and tunneled 300 feet north to the Holmes Vein.
In 1874, miners again extended the coal slope and continued mining the second level until 1876, when the company failed, but continued operating as agent to complete the mining on the second level in 1879.
In 1880, the Draper Coal Company, Milnes Deston & Company, took possession of colliery and during 1886 and 1889 extended the slope 300 feet to the third and fourth levels and mined to 1893.
In 1893, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company leased the colliery and extended the slope to the fifth and bottom levels, from which a tunnel was driven in later years across the basin to connect with Gilberton Colliery.
During the same year the underground Holmes Slope was sunk 330 feet from the second to the third level.
On September 5, 1901, fire was discovered in the East Fifty Lift Mammoth Vein.
The Draper and Gilberton collieries being connected with the Gilberton Shaft, the hoisting of water was stopped until the fire was submerged.
In 1910, the main slope closed July 26 when the cage left the track, doing considerable damage to the slope.
The slope was abandoned and preparation to sink a shaft began January 16, 1911.
A permanent head frame and shaft were completed at a depth of 603 feet from the surface to the second level in November 1911.
In 1912, an electric haulage system was installed and, in 1913, an underground slope on the Diamond Vein was sunk 261 feet below the second level to the basin.
In 1914, a rock slope was sunk 195 feet from the underground Diamond Slope to the Orchard Vein.
The total shipments from Draper Colliery were 8,450,109 tons to 1926, when tonnage shipments wee included with the Gilberton Colliery shipments.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, November 15, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.