Shelby, Thanks. I love mining stories, although I never worked in the mines. However, we did have one of those "coal banks" that you refer to. I was too little to be of any help, but my father and friends would mine the coal as you described, load it into burlap bags ("coffee sacks"), which were then loaded onto a sled and transported down a haul road to our house. I went on tour in the Wyco mine in West Virginia as part of a class I was taking in high school. After only about three hours in a mine where the top was about 36 inches high, I ached all over. I opined, "there's got to be a better way." Unfortunately, in Wyoming County in those days, there wasn't. Our choice was to leave. I remember with sadness all those great friends of my youth, who were broken up or died in the mines or later of black lung, silicosis and a variety of other related causes. STAN On Dec 1, 2007, at 6:04 AM, [email protected] wrote: > The first coal mine to export coal from Logan County WV, was the > Gay Coal & > Coke mine, at Mt. Gay The railhead was at Logan, and the coal had > to be > transported by wagon teams, to the gondolas at Logan.This was about > 1905. The mine > was owned by Harry Gay. It was in business about 50 years. > But coal was mined by the farmers who dug "coal banks" (small > mines) much > earlier. > It was a laborious task: The coal had to be drilled with manual > drills, after > the cut was first undermined by a sharp pick. Then black powder was > inserted > in the drill holes, and ignited by timed fuses. A few bushels of > coal could be > all that could be expected by this crude means. But, coal had twice > the > warming content of wood, so it was worth all the effort. > Later, the railroad was extended up Island Creek, and the big coal > boom was > on Mines were opened at Monitor Jct,Micco, and other places. The > railroad > itself was run by coal steam, so they were the biggest cutomers, at > the time. > > Shelby > > > ************************************** > Check out AOL's list of 2007's > hottest products. > > (http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007? > NCID=aoltop00030000000001) > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WVLOGAN- > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message