Coal Mining in
Kentucky
Thomas Walker became the first documented person to discover and utilize coal in Kentucky in 1750. However, this discovery proved initially insignificant as the state’s coal production remained at minimal levels until nearly a century later. By 1850, Kentucky’s annual coal production had reached 150,000 tons and had inspired the establishment of the Kentucky Geological survey. The outbreak of the Civil War temporarily stifled the growth of Kentucky coal production, but the war’s conclusion and the arrival of the railroads again fostered a boom in Kentucky coal production. By 1879, Kentucky’s coal production had reached one million tons. Initially, coal was produced almost by hand using picks and axes to remove the coal, which was then hauled away by animals, such as mules and oxen. By the turn of the century, the coal industry saw a widespread shift towards mechanization of coal mining methods In 1877 steam-powered shovels were first used to remove the overburden, which is the matter overlying valuable mineral resources, such as coal. Coal production increased not only with the introduction of more mechanized mining methods, but also with the extension of the railroads to the coal camps themselves. The extension of the railroads into the camps in the early decades of the twentieth century rapidly increased the production of coal, for it improved the transportation infrastructure, thus expanding the market for Kentucky’s coal. However, this expansion of Kentucky coal production was curbed by the onset of the Great Depression. The wartime economy created by the outbreak of World War II, combined with initiatives of the post-war Marshal Plan, reinvigorated Kentucky’s coal production. Kentucky’s coal production reached an all-time high in 1990 by producing 179.4 million tons of coal.
Coal mining is a tremendously important theme in River of Earth
