Pocahontas Exhibition Mine
If you are visiting Coalwood in person, and you have never been inside a coal mine, we'd like to suggest a visit to the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine in Pocahontas, Virginia. The mine is just a few minutes drive south from U.S. 52 between Bluefield and Welch. The Pocahontas Mine is one of the largest in the world covering over 30 square miles underground. Several tunnels have been preserved as an educational exhibit, and a knowledgeable guide will take you through and explain how coal mining works. (The part of the mine open to tourists is a drift mine.)
Appears to be
open only from April to September:
https://dmme.virginia.gov/DMLR/DAPocahontas.shtml.
Hours of the tours vary
by day and by season. Please call
276-945-2134 or 276-945-9522
to verify the current
schedule.
A hopper of coal is on display outside the mine.
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Bituminous Coal The coal at the Pocahontas mine is bituminous coal. During World War I, the United States Navy and the Royal (British) Navy, insisted on Pocahontas Coal to fuel their ships. The coal from the Coalwood Mine is also bituminous coal and is considered Pocahontas Coal. Most of the coal extracted from the Pocahontas mine and the Coalwood mine was sent via rail to Norfolk, Virginia, where it was loaded onto ships. From www.wikipedia.org: Bituminous coal is a dense coal, usually black, sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material, used primarily as fuel in steam-electric power generation, with substantial quantities also used for heat and power applications in manufacturing and to make coke. Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. The volatile constituents of the coal (including water, coal-gas and coal-tar) are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius so that the fixed carbon and residual ash are fused together. Since the smoke-producing constituents are driven off during the coking of the coal, coke forms a desirable fuel for stoves and furnaces in which conditions are not suitable for the complete burning of bituminous coal itself. Coke may be burned with little or no smoke under combustion conditions which would result in a large amount of smoke if bituminous coal were the fuel. Bituminous coal must meet a set of criteria for use as coking coal,
determined by particular coal assay techniques. These include moisture
content, ash content, sulphur content, volatile content, tar and
plasticity. |
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The entrance to the mine. |
For those of you who have read Homer Hickam's third book in the Coalwood series
Sky of Stone, you may recognize this. Sitting on the floor of the
mine just inside the entrance is a kettle bottom, a petrified tree stump that
has worked its way down through the soil over the centuries.
Unfortunately, kettle bottoms sometimes work their way down to the roof of a
mine, and then they crash through the ceiling. Many miners have lost their
lives to falling kettle bottoms.
Actual coal-mining equipment from different eras in inside the mine. Your
guide will explain how each piece works.
A loaded hopper car inside the mine.
Here is a kettle bottom in the roof of the mine. Fortunately, this one has
an 8-foot bolt through it holding it up. Without the bolt, this kettle
bottom could fall at any minute, killing anyone underneath.
A bench inside the mine could be used for lunch. (The rats shown here are
fake; there would
have been live rats in the mine when mining was in process.)
The small mountain just across the street from the mine entrance used to be a
slate dump in the1950s. In the picture above, you'll notice that all the
trees going up the mountain are a different color from the trees at the very
top. That's how high the slate was piled! In later years, the
government made the mine remove the slate dump and plant new trees.
The museum is located in this building just to the left of the mine entrance.
This building used to house the power plant and bathhouse.
Inside the building, you can also watch a 15-minute video about the mine.
The museum is full of coal memorabilia.
These are chargers where miners recharged the batteries for their lamps.
A map showing Coalwood and Caretta.
The kind of lunch bucket you saw in October Sky.
A model of a shaft coal mine.
Notice how much coal was left underground to hold up the roof.
A model of a coal-preparation plant.
The bathhouse where miners showered after their shift.
Outside, you can see an outcropping of coal.
This is how early settlers first discovered that there was coal here.
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From the Pocahontas Mine & Museum Brochure
11 Centre Street The Pocahontas Exhibition Mine is a twenty minute drive from Bluefield, Virginia over Route 102. In 1938, the "show" mine was opened. Visitors walk through the mine with a tour guide to view the coal formed 400,000,000 years ago and see the methods of mining used in the 1880s to the present day. The Exhibition Coal Mine site is part of the original Pocahontas Mine, which was the first mine opened in the world - the renowned Pocahontas Coal Field. The original mine opened in 1882 and was worked out in 1955. During the seventy-three years of operation, 44,000,000 tons of coal were mined. The mine is the only one of its kind. It is the only exhibition coal mine designated as a National Historic Landmark. The mine and the adjacent Coal Heritage Museum, Gift Shop and Learning Center, are open April through September. The town on Pocahontas is a reflection of its mining history. Immigrants of Hungarian, Welsh, Russian, Polish, German, French, English and Irish decent and more came to work in the coal industry. This cultural diversity is evident in the Pocahontas Cemetery, Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church, Opera House and other sites and structures. Visit the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine and Museum and discover our rich coal mining history. Night tours of the Exhibition Mine and Museum are available to groups
of 12 or more and may be taken with prior arrangements. |
Designated as a national historic landmark.
Hours of the tours vary
by day and by season. Please call
276-945-2134 or 276-945-9522
to verify the current
schedule.
Virginia Coal Heritage Trail
http://www.virginia.org/coalheritagetrail