An undated photograph of workers separating coal and rock at the top of a breaker. The coal then travels down the center to crushers and the rock travels down the two side chutes.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1998:
Enterprise Colliery was located two miles west of Locust Gap on Weikel’s Run in Northumberland County.
The colliery was opened by a drift driven west on the North Dip Bottom-Split Mammoth Vein by C. F. Norton and Thomas Baumgardner in 1864. The first shipment of 11,372 tons was made in 1865. The drift was mined until 1865, when it was sold out by the sheriff.
The mining was continued by R. A. Ammerman, a mining engineer, as agent until 1867. The drift was driven 3,100 feet when the Enterprise Coal Company was organized by Thomas Baumgardner and company which sank the slope 420 feet on the North Dip Bottom-Split Vein to the first level and erected a new breaker. These improvements cost $5,000.
In 1870, the gangways from the bottom of the slope were driven 3,200 feet westward to a fault and eastward 3,300 feet to its boundary.
In 1873, a new slope 500 feet west of the old slope was sunk on the North Dip 650 feet to the basin, from which three gangways were driven on both the North and South Dips.
A serious squeeze occurred on the slope and adjacent workings, which cause a suspension of mining that required the reopening and repairs that were completed in 1874.
On July 15, 1880, the breaker was destroyed by fire and a large double breaker erected in its place.
In 1885, a third slope was sunk on the North Dip Bottom-Split Mammoth Vein and a water-level tunnel was driven south 360 feet to the bottom of the same slope, with gangways driven east and west 2,200 feet.
In 1890, the No. 5 Slope was sunk 300 feet on the Lykens Valley Vein and a single hoisting engine was erected. It was abandoned in 1895 after a large expenditure of timed and money had been invested in its development.
About 1893, the No. 6 underground slope was sunk and, in 1895, an electric plant of 50 horsepower was installed for hoisting coal from the Skidmore Slope.
A new breaker was built to replace the old one destroyed by fire in 1895. The breaker was placed at the No. 3 slope and hoisted the coal directly into the breaker.
On December 4, 1898, part of this breaker was blown down during a severe storm, wrecking the boilers and boiler house and damaging the hoisting engines. In rebuilding the breaker they discarded a long plane from the slope to the head of the breaker and substituted a shaft-way 169 feet high in which was worked two standard cages. Also, an additional electric motor was installed in the Mammoth workings that replaced 10 mules.
In 1904, the shaft was sunk.
In 1908, fire was discovered in the mine, and in 1913, the lower levels were flooded with water until 1914, when the water was removed.
The total shipment from the Enterprise Colliery as of 1928 was 7,484,901 tons of coal.
The colliery closed down in October 1935.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, January 10, 1998. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.