SIX-MILE RUN COAL COMPANY.
Tuts coal company is located on a magnificent coal estate of eleven hundred and eighty-six acres, in the heart of the now celebrated Broad Top coal field,—the whole tract being underlaid with the principal seams of the region, and estimated to con tain 20,000,000 tons of available coal, the character of which needs no commenda tion. The estate is bounded on the north by Six-mile Run, and on the west and south by Shreeve Run ; and, since all the coal lies above water level, it is thus avail able at many points for development, while the tract is extensive enough for the location of a great number of large collieries. At present only two, the Fulton and North Point, are in operation, with a capacity of from three hundred to three hundred and fifty tons per day ; but the rapidly increasing demand for Broad Top coal will soon require the full development of this property.
The coal seams developed are the Fulton, Barnet, Cook, Twin and Spear, with an aggregate thickness of twenty-five feet of workable coal. All these are above water
level: the cost of developing Ahem is small, the mining improvements simple, and less than one-tenth the cost of those erected on deep mines, while the constant ex pense of heavy machinery is avoided. Each man employed will produce over four hundred tons of coal per annum, which is one hundred tons more than the average production in the anthracite region.
The development of the Broad Top coal field is of a comparatively recent date, 1856,—yet the increase of its coal trade is unprecedentedly great, and now exceeds 300,000 tons per annum, with a capacity of double that amount. There are many fine coal estates in this field, but we think there are none more promising than that of the Six-mile Run Coal Company.