The main coal hoisting slope of the West Shenandoah Colliery is pictured in the foreground, with loaded coal cars emerging to the surface. Next to it is the service slope. In the rear is the huge breaker, and the boiler house is in the center.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
Located west of Shenandoah City Borough, the West Shenandoah Colliery was opened by a slope sunk 285 feet to the first level of the Mammoth Vein by Michael Maize and William Lewis in 1869. The first shipment of coal was 11,486 tons in 1870.
Maize and Lewis operated the colliery until 1874, when it was purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Iron & Coal Company, which sank a new lift and also a shaft to a large body of flat coal east of the slope and later sank the slope on the Buck Mountain.
In 1877, miners extended the Buck Mountain slope to a new lift.
In 1881, the company erected an 18-foot fan to ventilate the West Shenandoah and Turkey Run Collieries by forcing air down an airway on the Mammoth Vein previously driven from the Centennial Slope. By this airway, the gas and smoke from the mine locomotive in the Turkey Run Tunnel was cleared.
In 1891, the hoisting slope on the Buck Mountain was extended 510 feet below the third level.
In 1900, the Kohinoor and Turkey Run Collieries were consolidated with West Shenandoah Colliery. A large breaker was built to prepared the coal mined from all three collieries.
In 1903, a new tender slope was sunk to the fourth level for use of men and supplies and steam and column pipe.
In 1907, the haulage tunnel connecting West Shenandoah and Turkey Run Collieries was started, and completed in 1908. Its total length was 3,222 feet.
In 1909, the breaker and headframe of the main hoisting slope was lighted by electricity.
In 1912, miners extended the rock slope to the sixth level and installed an electric hoist on the slope and sixth level.
The colliery was one of the largest producers for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company.
The West Shenandoah Colliery was shut down November 10, 1928. Total coal shipments from the colliery as of 1925 were 15,359,653 tons, including Kochinoor and Turkey Run from 1902.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, March 22, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
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