BIG BLACK CREEK COAL-BASIN.
This basin is now tapped or opened at two different points. First, at its eastern extremity, by the Buck Mountain Coal Company, whose planes descend into the Black Creek basin, or over Council Ridge from Clifton. This company has two slopes in operation to the bottom of the basin, which is here shallow and does not contain over 150 feet of coal measures.
The second avenue of the coal-trade from this valley is through the Council Ridge tunnel, which is 1023 feet long, over the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad. This road leaves the Hazleton road at the board-yard, some distance below Stockton, and passes through the tunnel to Jeddo, and thence down the valley of Big Black Creek to Ebervale and Harleigh, and from Harleigh it is continued around the western point of Black Creek ridge to Milnesville in Little Black Creek.
From the mouth of the tunnel a branch of this road turns up the valley to Eckley, which is one of the most handsome, attractive, and orderly mining villages in the coal-regions. At Eckley are the mines of Messrs. Sharpe, Weiss & Co., to whom, in fact, the village owes its existence.
Here the basin of Big Black Creek is three-quarters of a mile wide and divided into four synclinal troughs, or undulations, which increase in breadth and depth from the south to the north side of the basin. The mines at Eckley are located on the "saddle," or anticlinal, between the two first or southern basins or synclinals, and consist of two slopes, one in each basin. That in the first basin is on the south dip, with an angle of 30°, and that in the second basin is on the north dip, with an angle of 20°. Each is 200 yards deep, and the basins they penetrate are, respectively, 125 feet vertical in No. 1, and 275 feet in No. 2,—the vertical depth varying with the undulations of the surface.
The capacity of these mines is about 125,000 tons annually. During the year 1864 nearly 110,000 tons were produced.
It will be noticed that we give the size of the Mammoth I 3 in the section through the coal measures as 30 feet at Eckley, while in the section of the vein it is less than 20 feet. This difference is explained by the fact of the vein being thicker in the deep northern basins of the valley than in those now operated on the south side.
Fig. 49 is a vertical section through the measures at Harleigh, in the Big Black Creek basin, furnished by Alexander Silliman, Esq. The surface measures above
the Mammoth are barren of coal, as usual throughout the Lehigh basins, and are not given in the section. Their thickness is from 150 to 300 feet. The coal-basin here is divided into two subordinate basins or synclinals, with an aggregate breadth of 800 yards.
The distance between E and D in the section is here 210 feet; but this varies considerably farther up the valley, and at Eckley is only 150 feet. The lower veins are thicker in the Black Creek region, generally, than in any other portion of the Lehigh basins.
The Wharton or Skidmore, D, is here 12 feet thick, and a nameless vein, C, which is generally small, is 10 feet in thickness. The Buck Mountain B is not as large as it is found at the old Buck Mountain mines, at the Grand Tunnel in the Wyoming valley, or at New Boston, but is larger than its average size, generally, in the Lehigh basins.
The Mammoth is here 30 feet thick, and contains 20 feet of workable coal, with 10 feet of rejected or unwork able mine. The top, nine feet, is not worked. It is very productive, and mined with economy. The capacity of the Harleigh mines is 100,000 tons annually; their pro cluction during 1864 was 60,793 tons. They were operated last year by Messrs. Silliman & McKee, but have since changed hands, and are now (1865) operated by the Harleigh Coal Company.
The mines at Ebervale are operated by Messrs. Stout, Van Winkle & Co., lessees on lands of the Union Improvement Co. They have three slopes: two on the south dip and one on the north dip of- the Mammoth. The next in operation above Ebervale are the Jeddo mines of J. B. Markle & Co., also on the lands of the Union Improvement Company. Here there are three slopes in operation: two on the Mammoth, and one on the Buck Mountain vein,—all on the south dip.
Commencing at the lower end of the Big Black Creek basin, we find five colliery establishments in the valley, viz.: Harleigh, Ebervale, Jeddo, Eckley, and Buck Mountain mines,—the last being on the waters of Sandy Creek, flowing into the Lehigh to the east, and the former on the waters of Black Creek, which flow west and north into the Nescopeck and thence into the Susquehanna. The amount of coal mined by the Lehigh operators respectively will be found in the accompanying table.