An undated photograph of a group of miners breaking up large pieces of coal.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1998:
The Pottsville Gap Colliery was located on Sharp Mountain, south of the Schuylkill River and in line with Coal Street (now Route 61) in Pottsville.
The original operator was Lippincott & Richards, which in 1826 drove a drift on the Mammoth Vein eastward at the same level s the Navigation Company canal. It operated the drift to 1830.
The coal was loaded directly into the canal boats at the mount of the drift. By 1828, 300 feet of gangway had been driven.
In 1830, Robert Barclough succeeded Lippincott & Richards and continued driving the gangway 1,200 feet farther to a connection with a gangway driven west from a tunnel at Palo Alto.
After mining from 1830 to 1845, the drift was abandoned as it was worked out.
In 1852, Alfred Lawton reopened the mine and in 1854, sank a slope on the same vein as the old drift.
The colliery was operated under discouraging circumstances until 1868, when E. Desocarez and Van Winkle purchased the colliery and sank the slope to a lower level, driving gangways east and west.
It was said that the westward gangway was driven under the Schuylkill River, which increased the flow of water into the mine, making it difficult to keep the mine from flooding.
There are no records to prove this but during the negotiations by Gen. Henry Pleasants for the sale of the property at New York, the slope closed and the abandonment of the colliery followed in 1870.
The coal at this colliery was good and hard but was irregular and at times had a thickness of 16 feet.
Just prior to the closing of the slope, a new breaker was completed.
The complete total shipments are not available, but 6,991 tons were shipped from 1828 to 1835 and 12,637 tons were shipped during the year 1840. The shipment from 1862 to abandonment in 1870 was 40,161 tons of coal.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, August 1, 1998. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.