It's a what?
The coal company that owns the remains of the old mine nearest to me put up big yellow Keep Out signs all along the railroad tracks closest to the colliery. The people who ride their bikes and ATVs there still don't seem to care. This wouldn't be so big a deal, too--except for how I saw these exact same big bright yellow signs on the side of the turnpike a few days ago. Instead of effectively telling me to keep out, the company's just told me where to look for more neat things.
Is this new neat spot within walking distance? No. Does it have big visible-from-space shale piles like the one nearest me? No. Sadness. But examining google's maps & satellite pics of my immediate area showed a strange sort of change to the nearby creek, maybe a mile or so down the tracks from me. The creek around here meanders. When it suddenly goes in a straight line, something's up. And the area surrounded by this oddity didn't have big gray visible shale piles . . . but it did have some weird treeless spots and a complete lack of houses, roads, etc.
It might be a mine; it might not be a mine. There was only one (fun) way to find out. You know me: I grabbed the dog, the camera, and my cell phone, and started walking.
( A few big pics, some prattling. )
More specific research tells me this little guy ran for around thirty years in the 1800s, topping out at about twenty thousand tons of coal a year but ceasing function as a mine right after the Civil War. It also tells me that the "little" mine down the road from me, started about a decade before this one's closure, likely mined the rest of its coal.
Seems my "little" mine isn't nearly as little or one-directional as I'd thought. D: That's a hell of a lot of undercut and definitely goes under fun things like homes, playing fields, the creek, and possibly the railroad.
The company that put up the yellow signs supposedly has a center nearby. I shallbe in their base, pokin' them have to go visit sometime for more information.
Is this new neat spot within walking distance? No. Does it have big visible-from-space shale piles like the one nearest me? No. Sadness. But examining google's maps & satellite pics of my immediate area showed a strange sort of change to the nearby creek, maybe a mile or so down the tracks from me. The creek around here meanders. When it suddenly goes in a straight line, something's up. And the area surrounded by this oddity didn't have big gray visible shale piles . . . but it did have some weird treeless spots and a complete lack of houses, roads, etc.
It might be a mine; it might not be a mine. There was only one (fun) way to find out. You know me: I grabbed the dog, the camera, and my cell phone, and started walking.
( A few big pics, some prattling. )
More specific research tells me this little guy ran for around thirty years in the 1800s, topping out at about twenty thousand tons of coal a year but ceasing function as a mine right after the Civil War. It also tells me that the "little" mine down the road from me, started about a decade before this one's closure, likely mined the rest of its coal.
Seems my "little" mine isn't nearly as little or one-directional as I'd thought. D: That's a hell of a lot of undercut and definitely goes under fun things like homes, playing fields, the creek, and possibly the railroad.
The company that put up the yellow signs supposedly has a center nearby. I shall