This is Throwback Thursday #23.  In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general.  If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com.  Thanks!

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Waynes World of History and Genealogy has a great series of pages on the history of coal mining in Illinois.  There’s separate pages on mining itself, disasters in the mines, the miners and instpectors, data on how much coal was mined, and many, many, photos from all over the state.  It’s easy to get lost in all the information!

The first reference to coal being found in North America appeared in an article published in Paris in 1672 by Nicholas Denys, appointed governor of Eastern Arcadia in 1637. He obtained a concession of the whole island of Cape Breton from the King of France. He referred to “mines of coal within the limit of my concession and upon the border of the sea”. The concession was cancelled in 1690.
 
The first discovery of coal, in 1668 by Father Louis Hennepin, in what is now the United States, was made in what eventually, 1818, became our State of Illinois. Authorities differ as to when and by whom this discovery was made.
 
“The World’s Cyclopedia and Dictionary of Universal Knowledge” gives the honor of this discovery to Father Hennepin in 1669,on the Illinois River near the present site of Ottawa, La Salle County. “Mineral Resources of the United States, Part 2, 1913”, at page 832 says: “The first mention of coal in the territory which afterward became the United States is contained in the Journal of Father Louis Hennepin, published in 1698. The Journal contains a map on which is marked ‘cole mine’ on the banks of the Illinois River near the site of the present city of Ottawa, Hennepin having passed through this region 30 years before, in 1668.”
 
Prof. A. Beman, in “Bulletin No. 56, State Geological Survey,” states that “Joliet and Father Marquette in their voyage of exploration in 1673 by way of the Illinois Valley and Chicago River made the original discovery, some place between the present cities of Utica and Ottawa.”
 
Almost a century passed before it was known that coal existed in Pennsylvania and other places in this country.
 
During the first quarter of the nineteenth century it became known that a very wide extent of workable coal seams existed in Illinois, and references are found to its abundance in several counties of the State. Tanner, in “A View of the Valley of the Mississippi”, published in 1834, quoted by Mr. S. O. Andros in “Illinois Coal Mining Investigation, Bulletin 13”, says: “Bituminous coal is found abundantly in all parts of this State, in the bluffs and the banks of the water courses. On the Illinois, and opposite to St. Louis in St. Clair County, it is very abundant.”
 

Here are a few of the links from the pages.

	Coal Mining by County
	Coal Mining History in Illinois
	Illinois Coal Miners Monuments & Memorials Photographs and data are always appreciated.
	People of Coal Mining
	Inspectors ~ Illinois Coal Mines — 1882 – 1986 Including Directors of Department of Mines and Minerals
	Rescue Stations and First-Aid Contests
	Rescue Station Superintendents — 1910 – 1986 Including Assistants, Rescue Station History
	Rescue Operations at Royalton 1914 Franklin County, Illinois
	Disasters in Illinois Coal Mines
	The Cherry Disaster – Nov. 13, 1909 Including How the Victims Were Paid Bureau County, Illinois