Reclaming the mine

[Kevin_H.]

Well its been in the works for 3 years but the IDNR showed up this week to start the work on reclaiming the mine on our property.

The mine went out of business in 1917, most of the buildings were removed but the foundations stayed, so we have just worked around them since mom and dad bought the place back in '72

for the next couple of weeks they will be here caping the 2 shafts and digging up the left over concrete.

Lynette has alreay snapped a couple of hundred pics, but here are some of the shaft.





here is a pic of the mine shaft after they opened it with the track hoe




Here you can see the back wall of the shaft, the timbers have been removed already




Here is a good pic of the shaft with the timbers still in place




This is a perfect outline of the shaft wall, the shaft ran two cars, one would go up and the other came down, so the shaft was twice as wide one way as it was the other.

[farmerdoug]

What did they mine there?  It looks like it was already plugged.

[Kevin_H.]

It was a coal mine,  the shaft was filled when the mine closed and the buildings were removed. over the years we have had to fill the shaft with dirt several times, the most it ever dropped was about 6'..

it was amazing to see the timbers in such good shape. when they dug up the air shaft couple of days ago, it filled with water. up to about 15' of the surface. the guy from DNR said the mine was most likely flooded.

[Left Coast Chris]

Good to see your family will be safe.  Any more coal around for your use?

[Kevin_H.]

Not alot of coal laying around the place, lots of slag and ash though, they had there own coal fired steam plant, the winch system and the fresh air blowers were all powered by steam.

I have a pic of the shaft back when it was in operation, I will see if I can scan it and put it on...

[Don P]

I'd like to see that 

With the underground disturbed like it is, where do your water and sewer come from and go?

[Kevin_H.]

 



Here is a pic of the mine back in it's hayday, the coal would come up and get loaded right into the cars, there where 2 sets of railroad tracks that came on to the property.

When we got the property there was only one building still standing, the safe, it has stood since we got the property but will come down someday this week, the safe is 3 layer thick of brick and had the office built around it.

This is the only pic of the mine that we have been able to find, we do have a map of where all the building were,and we have a map showing where the coal was taken out under ground, there is a note on the underground map saying all pillers were removed when the mine closed, Big no no now adays.

[thecfarm]

An office built 3 layers thick of brick called the safe.I suppose for safety reasons???Not much coal around here.  Very interesting.

[Kevin_H.]

The safe was 3 layers thick and the office was not, it was a normal building built around the safe...

A couple of hits with the big cat today and the ol safe came tumbling down, I will try to get some before and after pics.

the have atleast tripled my usable space.

[thecfarm]

Got it backward.What I might was why was 3 layers of brick needed?

[Kevin_H.]

Got it backward.What I might was why was 3 layers of brick needed?

I guess because it was the safe?




Here is the back of the safe, they have dug a hole to push it into.




This is a pic of the big dozer getting ready to push it over. in the last photo you can see one of the corners missing on the back of the building, this is where my dad hit it with a dozer some 20 yrs ago.  this cat had no problem getting the job done.




And then it was gone, Kinda sad to see it go, it had been used for several purpose's, I can remember once when we made it into a chicken house, and it had been a dog house several times.

About the only thing left to do is spread some lime and seed.

[ScottAR]

Splitting hairs yes,  but that's an IH, not a cat...

Gets the job done just the same...
Great pics!

[Kevin_H.]

Scott you are right.  ;D

the track hoe is a cat, the dozer is IH.

they were to seed it today but we got rain all night so it may have to wait until next week.

[Fla._Deadheader]

If all the Pillars were taken out, what's to keep the area from collapsing, forming a sinkhole ???

[Kevin_H.]

Nothing!

Although I must say I have not heard of any significant subsidance in town. When I was talking to the guy from IDNR he said it was not a uncommon practice back in the early 1900 to remove the pillars.

[ElectricAl]

Did you ask the IDNR to fix the Mine?
Or was this their idea to help out?

[Kevin_H.]

hey Al, great pics of the safe room by the way.

They just called one day out of the blue, it seems that they tax the current coal mines to cover the reclamation of the old mines in the state.

3 years ago when we first started talking to them, I said that it wasn't a big priority for us, and he said that they have to spend the tax money, still it took them a while to get around to it.

they were pretty flexable about how to do it. for instance I had them leave one of the foundations that we use as a burn pit, they had no problem with it.

The really wanted to get rid of anything that could cause someone harm.

we have had a couple days of rain, so the seeding has been put off until the first of the week.

[Ron Scott]

The reclamation should be a big improvement to you property and values.