An undated photograph showing a mine “lokie” of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company (P. & R. C. & I Co.) bring loaded coal cars to the surface.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1998:
Shenandoah Lost Creek Colliery was located on the south slope of the Locust Mountain, two miles west of Shenandoah on the Lost Creek.
The colliery was opened by a drift driven west on the Mammoth Vein by Franklin B. Kaercher and George Huntzinger in 1863. The first shipment of 1,523 tons was made in 1864.
They continued to mine the drift until 1865, when Kaercher sold his interest to Col. Henry L. Cake and the colliery was then operated under the name of the Girard Mutual Coal Company, which continued mining until 1868.
In 1868, the colliery was leased to the Philadelphia Coal Company, which sank the first slope 390 feet on the South Dip Mammoth Vein to the first level. Erecting powerful hoisting and pumping machinery and operating the slope with cages, it continued mining until 1874.
In 1874, the Lehigh Valley Coal Company purchased the controlling interest in the colliery and operated it under the old name until 1880. It sank a second slope, 150 yards east of the old slope, 675 feet to a level 336 feet below the old slope workings. It completed the second slope in 1875 and in 1878 extended it to a fourth level.
In 1880, Lehigh Valley Coal leased the Shenandoah Lost Creek Colliery. It changed the name to Packer No. 2 and rebuilt the breaker, which was destroyed by fire October 12, 1880.
It also consolidated the Shenandoah No. 2 and the Packer No. 4 collieries. In 1885, it renewed the lease for 15 years.
In 1885, the colliery was drowned out due to a fire that started August 24 on the third level and quickly spread to other levels.
Mining did not resume until 1888. The colliery stood idle for two years and eight months. In 1903, the tender slope on the mountain vein was extended to a fourth level. In 1904, this tender slope was again extended to a fifth level to connect underground with the Packer No. 4 colliery workings.
In 1906, the tender slope engines were replaced with new engines with 36-inch cylinders. in 1923, the Mammoth Vein tender slope was electrified.
Total shipments from Shenandoah Lost Creek Colliery (Packer No. 2) were 6,163,964 as of 1928.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, June 6 1998. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.