The Brief version of the mine story of the Ohio Hidden Mine
Step One
The way the history goes Marion's father worked at an underground mine near by. The father had 2 sons and they both decided to go into business together starting their own coal mine despite what the father said. They said the good mining was in strip mining. Where the lower tipple was standing used to be the original site of their first strip mine. The tipple at the top was the original tipple to the strip mine.
Step Two
The brothers quickly learned that they had to change the mine to an underground mine to get the coal. Keep in mind this is more or less a large scale bootleg mine and the mine inspectors were consistly thrown off the property. The underground equipment was all purchased 2nd hand from nearby mines. They were extremely smart in the design of the infrastrucre. Aeriel pictures will not show a mine entrance or the tracks. They had built a shed over the haulage line coming out the side of the hill to the tipple. Weather conditions would never cause a problem for the mining production by keeping the outside operation under cover. There were a total of 12 mine cars they had bought new from Watt. Each car cost $600 at the time. The steel they got to build the tipple were from local bridges that had gone through an upgrade. They eventually had 3 Jeffrey coal cutters, 2 joy loaders, 2 joy shuttle cars to take the coal from the working face to the haulage line. It is amazing they had so much equipment. Eventually the mine inspectors came in shut the mine down for not following federal procedures. The abandoment records state it was closed in the late 60's BUT so they thought. We believe they kept mining to the late 70's to early 80's. In the same time period Marion's brother had passed away suddenly. The mine came to a hault with the face equipment still underground. Marion never shut the power of to the mine with hopes and dreams that some day he would mine again. We met him in 2005. The Power was still on. He took us down to the portal and energized the dc trolley wire power on. AMAZING we fired up 2 jeffrey motors still coupled up to empty trips ready to go back underground from over 20 years ago. Marion then realized it was time to start finding his mining equipment a new home and the mine would never reopen. We really enjoyed spending time with him and listening to his stories. He was in his late 70's by then. He lived by himself and worked alone. One day Marion decided to cut up a frame of a parts jeffrey loco he had outside. He was using a cutting torch when suddenly one of the sparks caught his pants leg on fire. He was unable to put the fire out the engolfed his clothes and died at his mine site. Tragic loss to everyone that knew him. We had placed a cross by the mine frame where he had died with a case of coke which he drank on a regular daily basis. We continued working with the family to save what we could. It was a huge group effort but now his mining equipment will be used to teach the public the history of coal mining and the importance of the mining industry today. His legacy lives on.
Marion had passed away when we opened the mine one last time.
Pete, OVCC
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