Draft:Alaska Colliery
colliery in alaska pennslyvania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Alaska Colliery was a anthracite mining facility located in Alaska, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, which is 1.7 miles northeast of Mount Carmel. Located in the Western Middle Anthracite Field, the operation functioned as an important production site for the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company (P.&R. C.&I.).[1]The colliery underwent rapid technological advancement, including early electrification and the implementation of specialized underground haulage systems, followed by a shift to surface strip mining in the mid-20th century.
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Development and Technical Details (1874-1930)
The colliery was developed to mine the Mammoth Vein, a high-carbon coal seam of notable thickness in the Mount Carmel region.[2] To access these deep reserves, the mine employed a combination of vertical shafts and inclined slopes. By the early 20th century, the facility underwent continuous expansion, including the sinking of the No. 3 slope, which was driven 160 feet into the bottom split of the Mammoth Vein to reach the basin of the seam.[3]
The Alaska Colliery served as a site for industrial innovation in the Pennsylvania Coal Region. In June 1897, the Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered a compound four-coupled compressed-air locomotive to the colliery.[4] These "fireless" engines stored air at high pressure (750 to 800 psi) and were adopted for their safety in "gassy" anthracite workings where traditional steam fireboxes posed an explosion risk. In 1915, the facility used mechanical loading technology, utilizing specialized machinery to replace manual shoveling of coal. The colliery footprint included a multi-tiered breaker for cleaning and grading coal, alongside a hoist house, boiler house.
At its operational peak in 1920, the Alaska Colliery employed a workforce of 777 workers. During that calendar year, the mine remained active for 272 days, producing approximately 300,000 tons of anthracite coal.[3]
Operational Transition and Environmental Legacy (1930–present)
The profitability of the Alaska Colliery's deep shaft mining had fallen significantly in the 1930s. Between 1933 and 1940, the (P.&R. C.&I.) was faced with high fixed costs, such as the perpetual need to pump water out of the underground workings. The economic conditions of this time also gave rise to "bootleg" mining on colliery lands, as unemployed miners dug "coal holes" to provide fuel for the local market.
After the parent company changed its name to Reading Anthracite in 1955, they stopped deep-shaft mining and started surface strip mining instead.[5] Heavy earth-moving equipment was used to remove the overburden and get to coal seams that were closer to the surface.[6] To make this happen, the original colliery structures that were on top of the remaining coal deposits had to be taken down.[7]
The long-term environmental effect of the Alaska Colliery remains a concern in the 21st century due to Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD). The colliery is part of a regional multi-colliery hydrologic unit encompassing the Shamokin Creek that produces significant AMD discharges into the local watershed.[8] These discharges from the flooded underground workings continue to damage the water quality of Shamokin Creek and its tributaries.