A photograph from 1885 showing the West Bear Gap wood breaker under construction. The Mahanoy Plane and town are in the rear.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The West Bear Ridge Colliery was located within the borough limits of Gilberton near the foot of the Mahanoy Plane.
The colliery (known as Bear Ridge No. 1) was opened by a slope sunk 300 feet on the South Dip Mammoth Vein to the first level by Morris Robinson in 1863. The first shipment of 214 tons was made in 1864. The colliery was operated by Robinson until 1865, when a new company was formed named Robinson, Guiterman & Company, which operated to 1870, when it failed.
In 1870, Day, Huddle & Company leased the colliery and changed the name to the Bear Ridge Colliery and operated it under the name of the Bear Ridge Coal Company, from 1870 to 1879. It sank a new slope 720 feet on the Mammoth Vein to the second level and used the old slope for pumping.
On August 1, 1875, the breaker, which was located directly over the slope, was destroyed by fire and caused damage to the timber 150 feet inside the slope. Construction of a new breaker was started immediately and it was completed April 10, 1876.
In January 1880, Meyers, McCleary & Company leased the colliery and operated it until the end of 1882, when it began stripping a part of the Mammoth Vein on top of the Bear Ridge Mountain.
On November 20, 1883, the company transferred its lease to the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company (1883-1898), which began making improvements by driving a tunnel across the basin. In 1884, it extended from the Mammoth Vein South Dip second level to the North Dip Buck Mountain Vein intersecting the Primrose and Holmes veins. The Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company replaced 24 old boilers and removed all the gunboats, replacing them with mine cars on the slope.
In 1885, the colliery was suspended to allow the full running of other collieries on Girard lands. It remained idle for three years with the exception of needed repairs and pumping, which continued to September 1, 1888, when the colliery resumed mining.
In 1890, the breaker was remodeled and the slope hoisting engines were rebuilt. A slope was sunk 300 feet below the second level on the South Dip Mammoth Vein, but it was allowed to fill with water until the upper levels were exhausted.
In 1891, this slope was pumped out and a tunnel was driven 200 feet across the basin to the North Dip.
The Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company continued to operated the colliery to January 1, 1899, when it terminated its lease and the colliery was closed.
On December 1, 1904, the Brookwood Coal Company leased the colliery from 1904 to 1905. It was succeeded by W. R. McTurke & Company, which operated it until 1913.
The total shipments from West Bear Ridge were 3,121,690 tons of coal as of 1928.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, September 20, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.