The coal mines of the western coast of the United States

Front matter

^0^ ENGINEERING LIBRARY /IS

BOUGHT WITH THE INCO FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT

Preface

In writing this little book, the object which I have had in view has been not so much to discuss the geological character of the Pacific Coast coal fields as to give, what has never yet been published, a full and intelligible description of the mines themselves as they exist to-day. To what extent I have succeeded in accomplishing this, the reader must judge.

1 regret that my acquaintance with the mines of British Columbia, which are for the most part confined to Vancouver's Island, is not sufficient to justify me in attempting to give any particular account of them. I have, therefore, excluded them from this work, although they are of no little importance, and are rapidly increasing their annual production.

The volume, in its present form, is mainly the result of my own work, travels and observations, extending over a period of nine or ten yeays, during which period it is safe to say I have done more work in, and have been personally more familiar with the actual condition and workings of, the various coal mines of the Pacific Coast than any other engineer has done.

In addition to this, however, I am also greatly indebted, as the text itself will show, to the labors of my friend and former partner, Mr. Theodore A. Blake, M.

4 PREFACE.

E., who is even more intimately acqiiainted with the mines of Washington Territory than I have been myself, and whose early investigations of the Seattle coal field, in particular, were exceedingly thorough and valuable. I desire, furthermoi'e, to express my obligations especially to Mr. P. B. Cornwall, President of the Black Diamond Coal Company; and, in general, to the officers and superintendents of the other coal companies throughout the country, for the liberality with which they have not only furnished all such information as I have directly asked from them, but also freely placed at my disposal every other facility for acquiring a full and thorough knowledge of their respective mines.

W. A. GOODYEAE.

San Feancisco, March, 1877.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

PREFACE -A

Chapter I. California

TiiK Mr. Diablo CoAr, Fifm) i;

The ( 'lark "\ein \-2

The MttU> Vein 2")

Scotiiiu iif Strata on Line iif CUiytun Tunnel 27

The Black Diamond Bed 30

Faults and DiKturliam-es :K

Ventilation 44

Haulage, St(ira;;e and Transportation 48

Pumping and I )rainage .i2

Peacock and Sail Franci;-ci> Miiic^ 55

( 'cntral llinc . - 5()

Empire Mine ... 61

Tcutoiiia Jliiic (i4

Kancho de Los ^IcnaiioN 66

The CoKHAi. Hollow Co.u. Field 09

The LivERjKiKK Mine 72

OTHKR CoAl, Ldl'ALITIES 7.S

CHAPTER II. The ( 'dO.s Bay JIines 8."?

The Eastport Mine 86

The Newport Mine 88

New -Mine 90

.Mistakes axo Faiu'REs 92

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Pack

AVA«HINGT()N TERRITORY ;

Beluxgham Bay ifix:: . 9S)

Talbot iliNE .... 103

Renton jNIixe 104

Seattle Coal and Transportation Cojipan^'.-^ ^Iines 106

PUYALLUP ('AKINii Co.VL .... 128

CHAPTEE IV.

Cost of Peoduction at Mt. Diablo Mini; 130

Statistics of Peodiction and Te.vde ... 132

Relative Valtes of Piffhrent ( 'oai.s 140

CONCLI'SION 151

Chapter I. California

The coal fields of the western coast of North America are limited in extent, and of comparatively recent geological origin. They are none of them of the Carboniferous Age, and, indeed, so far as yet known, none of them date back of the Cretaceous Period. They mostly furnish a non-caking, bituminous coal, which belongs to the class of lignites or brown coals. Vancouver's Island, however, produces caking coal; and some caking coal of good quality has also been found in Washington Territory. Small quantities of anthracite have been found on Queen Charlotte's Island, and probabl}' also in ^yashiugton Territory. But no workable mine of anthracite has ever been discovered on the Coast, and the little that has been found has always proved, on investigation, to have been the result of local and special metamorphism. Of the two States and one Territory which border the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and British Columbia, Washington Territory is by far the most liberally supplied with coal. Oregon comes next, and California last. In fact, California is decidedly unfortunate in the extent and the character of her coal fields. For, although it is easy to find coal at many localities in the Coast Range from one end of the State to the other, as well as at certain points in the western foot-hills of the

Sierra Nevada; yet it generally happens. either that its quality is poor, or its quantity is small, or else that it is situated in the -heart of the mountains so far from market that the cost of transportation alone would far exceed the value of the coal.

I begin this treatise, however, without further prelude, by giving a description of the only field within the State where coal has hitherto been profitably mined, viz. :

The Mt. Diablo Coal Field.

The extent of the Mt. Diablo coal field may be stated in broad terms to be some ten or twelve miles along the line of outcrop of the beds running through the northern part of township 1 north, range 1 east, and the north-western and central portions of township 1 north, range 2 east, Mt. Diablo meridian.

The details of this line of outcrop are, in many places, very irregular, and especially so in the western portion of the field, where the hills are high, and the carions are deep and steep. But its general course may be described as follows: It is curvilinear, and convex towards the north. Beginning in the north-east quarter of section 7, township 1 north, range 1 east, it runs at first north-easterl}', but curves rapidly to the east till it reaches a point in the north-west quarter of section 8, from whence it follows for almost three miles a nearly true east course across the northern portions of sections 8, 9 and 10, and close to the northern edges of these sections. But in going easterly across section 11, it bends to the south, and crossing the south half of section 12, enters the south-west quarter of section 7 in the adjoining • township. From thence it follows an irregular south-easterly course across the north-western and central portions of the township as far as the "Brentwood Mines," upon the Eancho de Los Meganos, and near the line between sections 22 and 27 of township 1 north, range 2 east. Beyond this locality to the south-east, the beds have not been traced with any certainty. The dip, throughout, is in a northerly direction; but it varies in amount at different localities from 12° or 15° up to 32° or 33°, being generally highest in the western portion of the field.

A range of high hills, whose culminating points on sections 8 and 9 reach altitudes of fifteen hundred to seventeen hundred feet above the sea, runs in a general east and west direction across the northern half of township 1 north, range 1 east, and is separated by a narrow valley on the south from the still higher mountainous region which culminates in the double summit of Mt. Diablo itself, three thousand eight hundred and fifty-six feet in height.

In going east, however, from section 9, the hills diminish in height, and following the line of the coal beds south-easterly across the next township, they gradually fall lower and lower, till we reach the level of the valley at the "Brentwood Mines," which are situated in the edge of the San Joaquin plain, at an altitude of only between one hundred and two hundred feet above tide-water. In its higher portions, this range of hills is deeply scored by canons in all directions, and it is among these canons in the northern slopes of the range, that the hitherto paying mines are located.

The strata have been considerably disturbed at numerous localities by faults of greater or less magnitude; and the coal beds themselves are subject, within short distances, to so great variations in thickness and quality of coal, as well as in the character of the rocks which inclose them, that it is not possible with present knowledge to certainly recognize any single bed in the eastern portion of the field as being the same with any one of those which have been so extensively worked in the western portion.

By the phrase, " Mt. Diablo coal field," as here used, must be understood not merely the actually productive region, but the whole extent of the belt through which there has been found some definite evidence of probability that the beds were once continuous, or nearly so, and within which sufficient discoveries have been made to lead to the expenditure of any considerable sums of money in explorations and attempts to develop new mines. The area within which the mines have hitherto been profitably worked, however, is far more limited in extent. It lies among the higher hills in the western portion of the belt above described, and includes a distance of only about two miles and a half along the strike of the beds, from the western limits of the Black Diamond Company's workings in the north-east quarter of section 7, where the beds either split up and run out, or become too much crushed and broken to pay for working, to the most eastern limits of the Pittsburg Company's workings in the south-west quarter of section 3, and the north-west quarter of section 10, where they are stopped by the wall of a great fault which intervenes between them and Stewart's mine on the east.

The "Central (i. e., Stewart's) Mine" is not here inchided within the profitably productive limits, for the simple reason that while it has produced considerable coal, its shipments having been sometimes as high as a thousand tons per month, it is more than probable that its production has been at a loss, instead of a profit, to its owners.

Within the productive limits above indicated, the chief openings of the mines as well as the dwellings of the miners, and other buildings, are, owing to the topography of the country, concentrated at two considerable villages, about a mile apart. The first of these villages, known as "Nortonville," is located on the south-east quarter of section 5.

The second one, known as " Somei-sville," is chiefly on the south-east quarter of section 4, township 1 north, range 1 east. Each village is in the bottom of a sort of amphitheatre among the hills, and at the head of a deep canon, which runs northerly some three miles to the edge of the San Joaquin plain, from which point the distance north across the plain to the river is also in each case about three miles. Down each of these canons there runs a railroad of the ordinary gauge (4 feet HI inches) to points of shipment on the San Joaquin river, just above its junction with tlie Sacramento. Each railroad is therefore about six miles in length, the Black Diamond Railroad running to the Black Diamond Landing (otherwise known as New York Landing), and the railroad from Somersville (called the ' ' Pittsburg Railroad") running to Pittsburg Landing, some two or three miles further up the river. The height of the villages themselves above tide-water ranges from seven huudred to eight hundred and fifty feet.

In tlie north-west corner of the south-east quarter of section 5, a round-topped hill rises to a height of one thousand three hundred and forty-eight feet above low water, and near the middle of the line between the north-west and south-west quarters of section 4, a similar hill rises to a height of about one thousand five hundred feet. Each of these two hills (between which runs the caiion of the Black Diamond Eailroad) is connected with the hills to the south, in which lie the mines, by a saddle" some three hundred or four hundred feet lower than its own summit — the saddle between Nortonville and Somersville being some three or four hundred feet higher than the village of Nortonville' itself.

There are few points in the hills containing the mines which rise to a greater height than the higher of the two hills just described. At Nortonville, as well as at Somersville, the carion, at the head of which stands the village, forks into numerous branches which spread upwards in all directions to the south, south-east and south-west among the hills, thus cutting up the surface of the mining ground by rough and precipitous gulches, often two hundred to three hundred feet in depth, so that the line of outcrop of the beds, as alre3,dy stated, is at this locality very irregular in detail and deeply indented by the gulches. The rocks which inclose the mines consist of unaltered, grayish and reddish silicious sandstone, generally not very hard, alternating with occasional strata of rather soft clay-rock, the whole belonging to the latest formations of the cretaceous period.

The coal beds, which have been profitably worked to a greater or less extent, are three in number, and are known respectively as the " Clark Vein," the "Little Vein," and the " Black Diamond Vein." Of these, the Clark Vein is the highest in stratigraphical position ; next ill order below it comes the Little Vein; while the Black Diamond Vein is the lowest, and underlies both the others. The beds lie nearly parallel with each other, all dipping to the north; and at the immediate localities of the villages, both of Nortonville and Somersville, the amount of dip is from 30° to 32°.

In the Clayton tunnel, at Nortonville, the level distance from the floor of the Clark Vein south to the roof of the Black Diamond Vein is six hundred and ninetysix feet, and the dip here being about 31'-', it follows that the total thickness of the strata, including' the Little Vein, between the Clark and Black Diamond Veins is, at this locality, about three hundred and fifty-nine feet. At certain points the level distance between the beds is somewhat less than it is here, while in other places it is considerably greater. This is due mainly to clianges in the degree of dip of the beds; though it is more than probable that the actual thickness of the strata between them also varies somewhat at different localities.

All the valuable mining ground here for a distance of nearly two miles and a half is now owned and controlled by three different companies, viz. : the Black Diamond Coal Company, the Union Coal Company, and the Pittsburg Coal Company. The Black Diamond Company owns the south half of section_5, the north half of section 8, and the north-west quarter of section 9. The Union Company owns the south-west quarter of section 4, and used to lease and mine the coal also in an adjoining strip to the east, between six hundred and seven hundred feet wide, ou the south-east quarter of section 4. The Pittsburg Company owns the balance of the southeast quarter of section 4, together with an additional tract which covers portions of the north-east quarter of section 9, the north-west quarter of section 10, and the south-west quarter of section 3.

The Claek Vein.

The only bed which has been worked continuously throughout the whole distance controlled by these compauies is the Clark Vein. This bed varies in thickness at different points from a minimum of eighteen or twenty inches to a maximum of four feet and a half, or a trifle over. The greatest variations in the thickness of this bed, however, do not occur within the limits of the Black Diamond Company's property, the minimum thickness in that property being twenty-eight or twenty-nine inches, and the maximum thirty-eight or thirty-nine; while the average for the whole mile of the Clark Vein controlled by this company, and as deep as the workings have yet extended, is thirty-two or thirty-three inches. Ou going east from the section line. However, into the south-west quarter of section 4 the bed grows rapidly thinner, and for a considerable distance in the western portion of the Union Company's ground its thickness ranges under twenty-four inches, being sometimes as low as eighteen. But in the eastern portion of the Union mine it again increases in thickness, and maintains across the southeast quarter of section 4 a thickness of from three to four feet, reaching its maximum in the Pittsburg Company's ground not far from the line between sections 3 and 4, where, as already stated, it is sometimes a little over four and a half feet thick. The Clark Vein is generally free from interstratification of slate or dirt of any kind, and with the exception of a certain portion in the western part of the Black Diamond Company's mines near the south-west corner of section 5, where, for several hundred feet it has been rather badly crushed by movements and bendings of the strata, the whole of it makes good, clean coal. Its roof and floor are also generally very good, so that it requires but little timbering. The floor is everywhere good solid sandstone, and the roof throughout the Black Diamond Company's mines, and in the western portion of the Union Company's ground, with few and small exceptions, consists also of the same material. But where the coal begins to increase in thickness in the eastern part of the Union mine, a thin stratum of rather soft clay rock makes its appearance on top of the coal and between it and the overlying sandstone. Further east, this clay stratum is nearly continuous, forming, genei'ally, the immediate roof of the coal throughout the Pittsburg Company's ground, and seeming, as a rule, to be thickest where the coal is thickest. It reaches, in places, a maximum thickness of from two to two and a half feet, and as it separates easy from the overlying sandstone, it causes, of course, some extra trouble and expense, and occasionally more or less danger in mining the coal. But it is nothing very serious.

The ciiief openings to the Clark Vein are, first, the Black Diamond Company's openings, which are three. Of these the first is what is known as the "little slope,"

or tlie "hoisting slope;" the second is the "Mount Hope slope," and the third is the Black Diamond shaft. Second, the Union Company's slope. Third, the slope of the old "Eureka Company," which formerly owned a tract about eleven hundred feet wide immediately adjoining the Union Company on the east, and now belonging to the Pittsburg Company. Fourth, the Pittsburg slope. Fifth, the "Independent shaft," situated on ground formerly owned by the old "Independent Company," but now also belonging to the Pittsburg Company.

The mouth of the "hoisting slope" of the Black Diamond Company is situated in the bottom of a deep ravine which runs up southerly and south-westerly among the hills, and is eight hundred and thirty-three feet above low water in the San Joaquin river. This slope, which is ninety-eight feet long, goes down to the south with a pitch of about 35° through the strata overlying the Clark Vein. From its foot, a level gangway, known as the " Clark Vein Main Gangway," has been driven east and west on the Clark Vein throughout the company's property, and is over a mile in length across the southern part of section 5. The slope is furnished with a double track, and a steam hoisting engine whose cylinder is 14"x30". Through this slope has been hoisted nearly all the coal which has come from the Clark Vein within the limits of the Black Diamond Company's property above the level of the Clark Vein main gangway, besides all the coal which has come from the Black Diamond Vein through the Clayton tunnel.

The mouth of the "Mount Hope slope" is situated about four hundred and fifty feet north-easterly from that of the "hoisting slope," and is seven hundred and ninety-seven feet above low water. The slope is two hundred and ninety-three feet long to the Clark Vein, and has an inclination, or pitch, of 37° 15' to the south. From its foot, the "Mount Hope Gangway" runs east and west on the Clark Vein through the property, and is also over a mile in length. The height of the "lift" between the Mount Hope and the Clark Vein main gangways (t. e., the slope distance measured on the dip of the coal bed from centre to centre of these gangways), is in the vicinity of the Mount Hope slope about three hundred and six feet. But in the western portion of the property the height of this "lift" increases considerably, owing to a decrease in the dip of the bed, the gangways being driven nearly level, or with only so much grade, about one in one hundred, as is necessary in order to drain them, and to facilitate the hauling out of the loaded cars. The Mount Hope slope is provided with a double track and a hoisting engine, with cylinder 14"X30". From a point on the Mount Hope gangway eighty-five feet east of the foot of the Mount Hope slope, a double tracked counter-slope runs down on the coal with a pitch of about 31° to the north, a distance of three hundred and seventy-seven feet to the ' ' Lower Mount Hope Gangway, " which is the lowest gangway yet opened on the Clark Vein by the Black Diamond Company. The coal from this lower gangway, until they began to hoist through the shaft, was hoisted up the counter-slope by an underground hoisting engine 16"X30", placed at the head of the counter-slope, and supplied with steam from the boilers at the surface by a pipe leading down the Mount Hope sIojdc.

The Black Diamond shaft is distant about six hundred and twenty feet in a direction a little north of west from the mouth of the Mount Hope slope. It is a vertical shaft, heavily and well timbered, and measures twenty-two feet four inches by eleven feet ten inches from out to out, being divided into three compartments, viz. : one pumping compartment five by nine feet, and two hoisting compartments, each six by nine feet in the clear, inside of timbers. The mouth of the shaft is eight hundred and thirty-nine feet above low water, and its present depth to the level of the lower Mount Hope gangway is four hundred and fifteen feet, and the foot of the shaft is about fifty feet south of this gangway. The shaft is furnished with two iron, double-decked safety cages, each cage raising two loaded mine cars at a time, and each car containing about a ton of coal. The hoisting power for this shaft consists of a pair of large steam engines working directly on the winding shaft, each engine having a twenty-four inch cylinder, and five foot stroke. The cables used here are flat wire ropes winding on spools.

The mouth of the Union Company's slope is situated very close to the line between the south-east and south-west quarters of section 4, and is eight hundred and sixty-six feet above low water. The slope itself is four hundred and seventeen feet long to the Clark Vein, with a pitch of 37° 45' to the south. From its foot a gangway runs east and west on the Clark Vein through this company's property. From a point on this gangway two hundred and forty-four feet west of the foot of this slope, a counter-slope runs down on the bed with a pitch of 28° 23' to the north, three hundred and four feet to a second gangway, and then about three hundred feet further to the third or lowest gangway in this mine. Each of these slopes was worked by a steam hoisting engine placed at its head, the underground engine at the head of the counter-slope being supplied with steam from boilers at the surface as in the case of the Mt. Hope and its counter-slope.

The old Eureka slope was about two hundred and ninety feet long, with an average pitch of about 43^ 15' to the south. It was furnished with a three-rail track and a hoisting engine, 10"x24:". Its mouth is seven hundred and eighty-six feet above low water. There was also a counter-slope fifty-five feet west of the foot of the surface-slope which went down some six hundred feet or more, and was furnished with a double track and ■A hoisting engine, 12"X24:". The whole of that portion of the Clark Vein originally owned by the Eureka Company has already, however, been worked out and exhausted, and these openings are therefore now abandoned.

The Pittsburg slope is in the southeast corner of section 4. Its mouth is eight hundred and thirty-eight feet above low water. It goes down in a direction somewhat to the west of south, with a pitch of 25-" 50', and is about two hundred and forty feet long to the Clark Vein. It is furnished with double track and steam hoisting engine, 12"X24". From its foot a gangway runs both ways on the bed through the company's property. From a point on tliis gangway twenty-fivefeet west of the foot of the surface-slope, a counter-slope runs down on the dip about eight hundred feet with a pitch of about 31° 30' to the lowest gangway in the mine. There are, however, two intermediate gangways, one at a point three hundred feet and the other at a point five hundred and seventy-nine feet down from the head of the counter -slope. The slope is double-tracked and is worked by a steam engine, 14:"X30", at its head.

In the eastern part of this mine and distant nearly a a quarter of a mile from the foot of the surface-slope, there is another counter-slope running down from the upper gangway to the second one. This slope is also double-tracked and furnished with a hoisting engine. Both the underground engines are furnished with steam through pipes conducting it from the boilers at the mouth of the surface-slope.

The Independent shaft is a vertical shaft sunk by the now defunct Independent Company about the year 1865, at a point a little south-west of the centre of the north-east quarter of the south-east quarter of section 4. The size of this shaft from out to out is nearly sixteen feet by ten, and it is divided inside the timbers into three compartments, viz. : one pumping compartment, three feet by seven feet eight iuches, and two hoisting compartments, each four feet by seven feet eight inches in the clear. Its mouth is seven hundred and nineteen feet above low water, and it is seven hundred and ten feet deep.

Some curious engineering was displayed in connection with the sinking of this shaft. It was represented, for example, at the time of its commencement, that it would strike the Clark Vein at a depth of from four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet; yet the position of the Clark Yein, and the amount of its dip in this vicinity, were at

Iliac time already well known, and a little simple measurement and computation would have demonstrated then as well as now the fact that a vertical shaft to the Clark Vein at that locality, must be in the neighborhood of nine hundred and fifty feet in depth instead of four hundred or four hundred and fifty. However, they went down seven hundred and ten feet, and then getting tired of sinking, left about twenty -four feet in the bottom of the shaft for a sump, and started a level tunnel to the south, at the depth of six hundred and eighty-six feet, for the coal. They drove this tunnel to the Clark Vein, its length proving to be (according to the best accounts afterwards obtainable) about four hundred and twenty feet. When within about one hundred and fifty feet of the coal, they struck a large stream of water, which necessitated hoavy pumping machinery, and a steam engine was erected and a Cornish pump put in. But the foundations for the engine were bad, and it Avas never firm upon its bed. Moreover, the only available water was that from the mine, which was so heavily charged with a mixture of various sulphates, with probably some free sulphuric acid, as to be exceedingly destructive to the boilers. Nevertheless, the Clark Vein was at last reached, and a gangway driven, and a considerable area of coal worked out above its level, stretching upward towards the lower workings of the Eureka Company. But 'the work was done at a heavy loss, and it was finally abandoned, the parties who inaugurated it becoming bankrupt. It is said that the amount of money expended here before the coal was reached was over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. While the work was in progress a connection was made with the lower

Eureka Avorkings by a sLoot driven up along the coal for purposes of ventilation. This shoot afterwards answered the purpose of a water-drain for the Eureka mine; and the Eureka Company, having iu the course of time purchased the Independent property, employed the Independent shaft, at considerable expense, for a year or two, merely as a pumping shaft, in which the Avater was held at a certain level, which just sufficed to drain the lower workings of their own mine. But after having exhausted the Clark Vein in their own property down to the top of the- old Independent workings, the Eureka Company, in its turn, stopped work, and subsequently sold both the Eureka and Independent properties to the Pittsburg Compiiny, which now owns them. The Independent shaft is now abandoned and idle. It will be noticed, however, that the level at which the tunnel from the foot of this shaft struck the Chirk Vein is at a considerably greater depth than any other point which has yet been reached in the Mt. Diablo mines.