Coal-mining Region - United States

United States

See also: Coal mining in the United States and List of coal mines in the United States

Coal mining in the United States has historically had economic and cultural dominance in regions such as the Allegheny Mountains and Appalachian Mountains, where it was a major part of identity and traditions. The replacement of workers by mechanization has had major consequences for the industry and for the people it affects.

Coal is mined in the Appalachian Mountains region, and the Midwest. Most coal now produced in the United States is mined in western surface mines, especially in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. A surface mining method often used in the Appalachians is mountaintop removal mining.

The states with the largest recoverable coal reserves are, in descending order, Wyoming, West Virginia, Illinois, and Montana. The largest single mine in the United States is the North Antolope Rachelle near Gillette, Wyoming; it produces more coal annually than many states. In 2009, it alone produced over 100 million tons of coal, and has plans to produce 130 million ton in 2012 more than 23 other coal producing states including Pennsylvania.

Areas with significant coal mining activities include:

  • Coal Region of Pennsylvania - One of the largest deposits of anthracite coal, the region is in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in the central Appalachian Mountains comprising Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin counties. Major population centers include Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Pottsville
  • West Virginia - see economy of West Virginia
  • Eastern Mountain Coal Fields and Western Coal Fields of Kentucky
  • Southern Illinois Coal Fields, including the Harrisburg Coal Field
  • Colorado - including Denver Basin. - see coal mining in Colorado
  • Powder River Basin
  • Raton Basin

Read more about this topic:  Coal-mining Region

Famous quotes related to united states:

    “When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States
    His laughter tinkled among the teacups.
    I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,
    And of Priapus in the shrubbery
    Gaping at the lady in the swing.”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    “The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)

    “Hollywood ... was the place where the United States perpetrated itself as a universal dream and put the dream into mass production.”
    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)

    “The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    “In a moment when criticism shows a singular dearth of direction every man has to be a law unto himself in matters of theatre, writing, and painting. While the American Mercury and the new Ford continue to spread a thin varnish of Ritz over the whole United States there is a certain virtue in being unfashionable.”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)