This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/zl.2ADE/510.2 Message Board Post: Olive, This map is still being sold, and as far as I know the price hasn't changed. http://www.minersmemorial.org/ Click on Products. There's also Contact information, phone and snail mail as well as online. I hope this helps. Orlena ~~~~~ Cartographer for a cause Casaletto compiles map of old coal field to raise funds for Coal Miner Memorial Sunday, November 17, 2002 - Morning Sun By JEFF WELLS Morning Sun Staff Writer Photo (attached) Ray Brecheisen/The Morning Sun Frontenac resident Louis Casaletto, pictured here in the Crawford County Historical Museum, has created a map of the Weir-Pittsburg Coal Field in Cherokee and Crawford counties. He is selling copies of the map to raise funds for a proposed Coal Miner Memorial to be located at Immigrant Park in downtown Pittsburg. FRONTENAC -- Louis Casaletto is a cartographer for a cause. Casaletto recently compiled and is selling a map of the Weir-Pittsburg coal field. Proceeds from the sale of the map, "Coal Mines and Mining Camps of Crawford and Cherokee Counties," will be used to help develop the proposed Coal Miner Memorial to be constructed in Immigrant Park in downtown Pittsburg. The map plats historical mines, camps, and communities in southeast Kansas from Arcadia south to Weir, Scammon, and West Mineral including Arma, Frontenac, and Pittsburg. Current city boundaries, county roads, and U.S. Highway 69 are also shown. "This information here is available (elsewhere) but it is difficult to find and nobody knows about it," Casaletto said. Casaletto spent a few months preparing the map--the first he has attempted. Pittcraft Printing printed 1,000 copies of the first edition. More maps will be printed and corrections made as needed, he said. "I'm sure people will say we missed this mine or this camp," he said. Casaletto based the map on an earlier University of Kansas Geological Survey map of southeast Kansas mines and material from William Powell's dissertation on the names and locations of the mining camps. Casaletto and the group working with him on the project also consulted old railroad maps. Powell is a retired faculty member from the PSU geography department David Fish, a Pittsburg architect, worked with Casaletto on the project. "There were well over 100 small mining camps associated with all the mines in the Weir-Pittsburg coal field," Fish said. "We correlated that with more modern information. We put on what we thought was more relevant information so that people can find these places." Randy Roberts, Pittsburg State University special collections curator, provided Casaletto with some of the information on the map. "We scanned some of the photographs and pictures that we have here and they incorporated those on the map," Fish said. Debbie Close, Linda Knoll, and Wilma Cook Snare also worked on the project. Roberts said that Axe library has a several state maps and reports on the mining industry in its Kansas documents section. The library also has old geological reports, photograph collections, personal papers, some records from mining companies, newspapers, historical studies of mining companies , and state coal mine inspectors reports. "They have a lot of the information on accidents and injuries as well as production information," Roberts said. The map does not detail undermining information. Roberts said that persons wondering whether their property is undermined will find a few maps in the library's special collections, but he recommended checking with state offices. "It doesn't in any way show the old shaft mines or what is undermined," Roberts said. The proposed Immigrant Park is planned for unused railroad space in downtown Pittsburg on Second Street between Pine to Walnut. "Pittsburg was the focal point," Casaletto said. "It was at the center of the coal fields and the hub for all the railroads. It's a natural thing to have the memorial in Pittsburg." The memorial will have a bronze statute of a miner and black granite tablets inscribed with the names of miners. Fundraising and publicity efforts should be in full-swing by spring 2003, Casaletto said. The group is interested in the history of the mines and miners and locating their descendants. They are compiling a brochure and developing forms to collect information on the history of the miners. Casaletto said he does not know of any similar public memorials to the miners of the southeast Kansas coal fields but he said there are several coal miners memorials throughout the United States including one at McCallister, Okla. A memorial similar to the one planned for Pittsburg was constructed at Altus, Ark. Organizers there also published a memorial book--Casaletto's group hopes to do the same. The map is just one way that Casaletto is promoting the memorial. He and Arma welder Primo Guerrieri recently built a replica coal car. Casaletto plans to take the coal cart to area festivals. Casaletto traces his heritage to immigrant miners. His father and uncles came to southeast Kansas from Italy to mine in the early 20th century. "They all came for the coal fields," Casaletto said. Copies of the mining map are available for $5 each plus $3 for shipping and handling from Intercity Maps, 807 Redbud Lane, Frontenac, or by calling (620) 232-1728.