ALBION COAL MINE, PART III - Historical Albion Michigan

Back in our March 5 and 12, 1995 issues of this column, we featured the Albion Coal Mine, and had several photographs to accompany it. Turns out that those were 1931 photographs of the Electric Coal Mine in Sandstone Township, Jackson County, and the old Sackrider Farm Mine on the same road, along with their workers. Our source of the photos assumed that they were from the Albion Mine. The same photos, however, were pictured in the Sunday, February 15, 1931 Jackson Citizen Patriot, page 3.

So that leaves us with no photographs of the Albion Coal Mine. Does anyone have any we could feature here in this column?

From our Historical Notebook this week we present a rare map from 1923, showing the mining operations of the People’s Coal Mining Company on 29 Mile Road. Special thanks to Florence Carver for supplying it. I have typed in some physical features to help with the identification.

On this map we see 29 Mile Road in the center. To the lower left is the spur track which came to the mine from the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. To the lower right is the original mine shaft on the old Philo Clark/Shimkus property. North of it on the Boyd/Carver property is shown the extensive tunnels just south of the Boyd/Carver farmhouse. In several locations it is stated, "Old Works," or "worked out," meaning it had been worked in the period up to around 1920 or so. Those tunnels are not shown on the map, only the working ones are. The 1938 Shimkus shaft would be just off this map to the south, and is now shown [On this internet version on the left we also present some authentic coal from the Shimkus coal mine, contained in a 2 by 2 coin holder].

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