Frankfort Community High School - Red Bird Yearbook (West Frankfort, IL)

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THF IIIBTORH Ol co Xl if ff ff' 1 fu By Shlrley Fox 0 41 It is natural to honor Qld Klng Coal rn 1l11no1s for well over 5U percent of 1ll1no1s contarns b1tummous coal beds maklng thrs state one of Unrted States lead1ng coal pro ducers Although all coals are of vegetable or1g1n there are many varlettes as to age formatron physrcal and chemlcal character 1st1cs Brtumlnous coal 1S one o c1v111zat1ons prrme sources of energy Sometlmes called numus coals they mclude cokrng and non cokmg types The cokmg at varylng temper atures glves off by products By product cokrng rmproves on the old beeh1ve cokrng by recov er1ng all those rngredrents of a chemrcal na ture whrch have formed the basrs of the coal chemrcal lndustry The frrst drscovery of coal on the North Amerrcan Contment was made rn 1ll1no1s lolret and Marquette on therr voyage of exploratron alona the 1ll1no1s rrver ln the v1c1n1ty of Ottawa and Utlca A few years later a map made by another explorer located a cole mme that area lt was almost a century later before coal was d1scovered rn Pennsylvanra and other eastern states but rt was more than 160 years before there was any large scale effort t caprtalrze on 11l1no1s vast coal resources The frrst recorded shrpment of 1ll1no1s coal was rn 1810 when a raft loaded wrth coal from the Amerrcan Bottom ln lackson County was floated down the M1SSlSSlppl to New Orleans Practrcally three frfths of the state of lll1no1s 1S underlard wrth coal deposrts Not all of these seams however are of suff1c1ent thrckness for profrtable mrnrng and the seams vary rn depth from the earth s surface rangrna rn some coun The map on the opposlte page shows the chxef mmes located m Frcmklm County tes to w ll over 1000 feet and actually out croppmg rn rrver banks and on the srdes o denuded htlls rn others Many local m1nes are reached by drlft m1n1ng but wuh few exceptlons whrch apply mostly to stnp m1nes All m1nes now shrppmg coal by ra11 are reached by vertrcal shafts and slopes The depths of the shafts and slopes va y Up unt1l 1923 practrcally all coal was mrned by hand but then the age of mach1nery began to creep rn untrl today m 1ll1no1s 87 percent of the coal lS mmed by mechanrcal means New mach1nery and advanced methods are brrng mg maxrmum effrcrency to productlon Of the 206 coal rr'1nes 1n 1ll1no1s rn operatron today erght are rn or near West Frankfort and thrrteen are 1D Franklm County They are ler Bell and Zoller Coal 5: Mmrng Co No 2 7e1g1er Ch1cago Wrlmrngton G Frankhn Coal Co No 1 West Frankfort C W and F Coal Co No 2 West Frankfort Franklm County Coal Corp No 5 Freeman Franklln County Coal Corp No 7 Royalton Old Ben Coal Corp Nos 8 9 11 14 15 West Frankfort Peabody 18 West Frankfort Vaher No 1 Valrer The1r total output for the year 1945 was 18173694 tons whtle West Frankfort m1nes alone pro duced 10 591 U73 tons The mrmng lndustry prov1des employment for 7 U17 men of the county and 2922 rn West Frankfort m1nes Frankl1n County also boasts tte largest shaft mme tn the world New O rent No Z located 1ust north of West Frank or I' ..,I , Q' r 47 U54 .fyfx 1,' 1 A C f 1 It F aff -4 g , , 4 X-kgyf ' ',,,f ' 0 in 1673, discovered coal seams in the bluffs Bell Und 20116-r C0015 Mi1'1if1Q CO- NO- 1-29195 A , ' in . . - g . . I . . . I . . - O l I f I I W - 1 - A f I I . J . - f tl' I f . J .jf . Qi ' ' - '? ?

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