Southern Illinois sawyers (PICS )

[Buzz-sawyer]

I had the priveledge of a visit with Kevin H today.
I got the 5 cent tour of his mill and also a bonus....his mill is sitting on top of an abbandonned mine!
He has the remainns of the safe vault, the mine entrance ect. under his log yard......
Kevin givin the tour



log yard over the old  mine


jig for cutting stakes


where the entrace to the mine was


the mizer

the old safe for all the gold!



Kevin and Don (Buzz sawyer)

[Kevin_H.]

Hey Don,
Sure was good to meet ya, Sorry the visit was so short, We need to do it again when we can sit and do a little more talkin.

I posted some more pics of the stakes over in the sawmills and milling.

Next time I will see if I can locate the underground maps to the mine. it shows where the rooms where made and where the pillars were left.

Did ya'll stop anywhere else on the way back?

[Kevin_H.]

Hmm,
Don Maybe we should'a just posted the pics of the buildings and logs, I think maybe we scared everybody with the pics of me giving the tour!

When we bought the properity it was a complete mess, concrete foundations from the mine buildings, old cast pipes running under ground, and lots of steel every where.

The mine is inside the city limits and at one time employed most of the towns people, It is our under standing the mine went bankrupt although there was still coal to dig.

[Jeff]

I sent Don a note first thing asking for the original pictures so I could give them a Jeffy Optimize.  I wanted to know more about the mine. Is it sealed completely now?

[Kevin_H.]

Jeff,

The mine shaft has been filled with dirt, this was done when the mine closed, about 10 yrs ago the ground had settled enough that we could see down into the shaft about 10 ro 12 feet, the shaft was twice as long as wide, and lined with timbers and flat steel holding the timbers in place.

On the property we have at least one air vent that required some dirt last year, it had sank about 24" over the last 32 years.

[Furby]

I'm with Jeff on this one, I want to hear more too.
Is it a vertical shaft with horizontal shafts underground (I don't know the lingo for this, someone HELP!)? Or just a horizontal shaft going underground?

[Jeff]

Come winter, all us michigan boys are looking for a hole in the ground we can climb into to stay warm. Thats why Tammy and I built an earthberm.

[Kevin_H.]

I dont know alot about the mine,

It does have a vertical shaft and they used room and pillar mining, as we have the under ground maps showing where the coal was removed.

The name of the mine was "crystal" and it was in operation from 1901-1925 with 4 different owners

The type of coal removed was called "herrin"

But that's about all I know.

If I can find out anything else I will pass it on.

[Furby]

Kevin,
You said that you could see into the shaft and see some timbers and steel. Were you looking straight down into the shaft?
I guess what I want to know is if the old entrance was the vertical shaft.

[Kevin_H.]

Furby,
the old entrance shaft was vertical, Picure it twice as long as wide with two lifts, the lifts were connected as one went up the other came down,

By looking at the maps, imagine big horizontal halls with interconnecting rooms of mined coal, the pillars were left to hold up the roof.

I dont know how deep the timbers ran, deeper than 10 feet.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Hey Kevin....I have been busy looking at standing timber all week...got about 20mbft bought and a little bit with 6mbft too...going to look at 30 acres on monday...so I might have a couple of sticks to saw next month!
Don

[Furby]

Got it. Thanks Kevin!

[Kevin_H.]

Hey buzz have you figured out what you are going to do about the logging?

With that big circle mill that might just keep ya busy for a week!

Hey Furby no problem...Most of the old timers that worked at the mill are long gone, I would like to find out more, Maybe someday