Behind our property there are some what appears to be abandoned coal mines. I did some research on the internet and found that this particular site was once the nations leading supplier in coal. It said that mining took place in this area from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. The DMME has a map on their website of abandoned coal mines and shows about 19 spots labeled as "Vertical Opening" and about 18 labeled "Mine Opening" behind our building. The land through out this area is generally flat and doesn't have many hills. The area is all wooded and when walking around, you come across hills approximately 20' x 20' and 10' high and some reaching as big as '50 x 50' and 15' high. The craters on the top of the hills go a little further into the ground (example: if the hill is 15' high its only '20 deep). We have been down in the craters and there are no holes or signs of there ever being a hole, but there is coal rock all around. There are about 3 50' x 50' areas that have no hills and are just in the ground (but filled with water). There are some run offs around these water filled holes that appears to have the oil rainbow in the water. We walked around the area which is about 4 acres and could not find any shafts or areas of where the miners would enter. There is also no equipment or rails anywhere.

So heres my question. What kind of mines were these? Do you think its possible that we just missed where the openings are? What are these giant hills?

Thanks for your help!

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Those hills could be tailings or what ever they are called.

Can't tell much from the photos, really. But to me they looks as though they may be cave-ins, or what's called "subsidence." To me it looks like where a tunnel collapsed, relatively shallow cave ins where the tunnel was close to the surface.

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jdr