From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The Pine Knot Shaft Colliery was located on the West Branch of the Schuylkill River west of Mine Hill Gap in the Heckscherville Valley.
The original opening was the No. 1 shaft – 1,224 feet deep, by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company in 1902.
The operation of the colliery was at a higher level, 740 feet from the to of the shaft. From this level, tunnels were driven 1,240 feet north and south from the shaft to the north and south dip of the basin first that included both dips of the Mammoth and underlying veins.
Large bodies of water in the old abandoned north and south dip workings in the Mine Hill Gap and West Pine Knot collieries overlaid the tunnel and had to be removed before mining could proceed. In 1907, drill rooms were provided to drill into the old workings to remove the water.
In 1907, the No. 2 shaft was sunk to a depth of 790 feet, but as the No. 1 shaft, the mining was at a higher level, or 440 feet from the top of the shaft. The colliery breaker was completed the same year.
The colliery was extensive, mining all veins cut into both tunnels and preparing the coal from the Thomaston and Glendower collieries, which was transported over a mine railroad 3.5 miles in length that later was extended to West Glendower Colliery, a distance of nearly six miles. The hoisting machinery consisted of the coal hoist and water hoist on the No. 1 shaft. The drainage of the colliery was maintained by the water hoist engine with a 2,500 gallon tank.
In 1928, a water-level tunnel was driven north in the Broad Mountain to the jugular (Mammoth) vein.
The colliery was abandoned April 17, 1933, and allowed to fill with water. The total shipment of coal from Pine Knot Shaft Colliery as of 1928 was 4,377,505 tons.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, February 8 – 9, 1997.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.