Broad Top had several once-prosperous communities

Some of the readers recently informed me that other mining towns were located around the Broad Top but only a few survive. One caller pointed to a short-lived coal patch town known as Shiloh. Where was the village located? Please contact me if you have some information.

Names remembered

Although only a few houses/foundations can be found today, several other mining villages along the H&BT’s Shoup’s Run branch survive. Some of them include Minersville and Melrose which were situated around the old Minersville Coke Ovens. Located north of the coke ovens was Powelton, also situated in Carbon Township, Huntingdon County.

The mines and coke ovens were a prominent component of the Robert Hare Powell property, a well-known industrialist and businessman from Philadelphia. The Minersville area mines and coke ovens supported Powell’s blast furnace operation which he opened in the Saxton area around 1882.

Much of the property at Minersville was purchased by Powell from early Shoup’s Run pioneer, Henry Miller who came to the Broad Top around 1810 from Lancaster County. Miller, who was also a farmer in the Minersville area, has a local stream named after him, Miller’s Run.

Although facing rising transportation costs and competition from Lake Superior ore producers, Powell continued to operate the Saxton blast furnace and Minersville mines and coke ovens up until his death in 1890, at which time the operations were taken over by his two sons. The Powells added a second blast furnace at Saxton, but after a time were unable to keep the business afloat and declared bankruptcy.

The business was acquired by several Philadelphia businessmen who reopened the Saxton/Carbon Township business which also failed due to stiff competition from western iron makers. The business was purchased in a bankruptcy sale by Joseph E. Thropp, who operated an iron furnace at Everett, not far from the H&BT’s southern terminus at Mount Dallas.

Likewise, Thropp’s operation failed and the property was sold at a Sheriff’s Sale around 1921, and later scrapped. The only physical benefactors of the Saxton, Powelton and Minersville legacy are the industry’s namesake towns even though little survives at Powelton which once existed above the Kenrock area, northwest of present day Barnettstown/Dudley.

History lies in ruins

There are several houses located in the Minersville/Melrose area and several old structural landmarks that once composed the vast Minersville mines and coke ovens operations. Motorists traveling Route 913 between Coalmont and Dudley will quickly spot some of these old mining landmarks scattered along the Shoup’s Run stream and abandoned H&BT Railroad branch line.

A map of the Minersville mining area located in the Broad Top Area Coal Miners’ Museum at Robertsdale lists these sites: boiler and engine house and fan house which were a part of the Gordon Mine operation. Also situated in that area was a blacksmith shop, coal tipple and hoist, supply and power houses.

Situated west of the Gordon Mine area was a series of coke ovens which survive today but engulfed among brush and trees. Several storage sheds, a boil house and blacksmith shop were located around the Miller Mine which connected the mining operation with the H&BT’s Shoup’s Run branch via a short narrow gauge track and incline system. Also making up this operation were mining tipples and “head” and “drum” houses.

Located further north was the Melrose Mine which was connected with the other mining areas via a narrow gauge rail system. A compressor house and blacksmith shop were also located in the Melrose area. The miners utilize a mule barn not far from Melrose and patronized a nearby general store and company office.

Mine names changed

While many of the Broad Top area mines held onto their original names, others changed names when new mining companies/operators leased or acquired the properties. Such was the case along Shoup’s Run.

Although many of the mines in the Minersville, Melrose and Kenrock/Powelton area maintained their original identities for many years, some other pits changed names, particularly along the southwestern side of Route 913 and Shoup’s Run. According to a 1913 Topographic and Geological Survey map located in the miners’ museum several portals southwest of the Minersville included the Melrose and Benedict Mines which reached the Fulton and Barnett coal seams while at least two deep mines (the Barnett Mines) were operated north of Minersville in the upper part of Kenrock/Powelton. Many years later, this area was the subject of surface mining operations.

Still other mines which changed their names during the mining era were the Old Ocean, Hickas, McGraft, Old Never Sweat and Cliff portals.

Mining memories

Since the opening of the coal mines of the Shoup’s Run region of the Broad Top in the mid 1850s (associated with the opening of the H&BT from Huntingdon to Saxton and Dudley) thousands of coal miners toiled deep beneath the earth’s surface. Other hard-working Broad Toppers operated the H&BT trains which climbed the western side of Broad Top Mountain relying on a series of switchbacks.

Similar railroad switchbacks were also built on other mountainous areas of the Broad Top including Sandy Run and Shreeves’ Run located in northeastern Bedford County.

Many years ago, I interviewed an H&BT engineer who recalled of death-defying “run-offs” of coal trains on the Shreeves’ Run branch (which brought the H&BT to the mines in the Finleyville area of Bedford County). “It was a scary trip and many of the railroad crew members could be heard humming ‘Nearer My God to Thee’” as they edged the train consist to safety onto the Six Mile Run main branch.

Although little physical sites remains of King Coal’s once prosperous reign in the tri-county Broad Top, the history survives.