Calendar captures mining industry - The Steubenville Herald-Star

SPECIAL CALENDAR — Dale Davis is shown with a 2017 calendar featuring the Georgetown preparation plant. Calendars have been published for seven years by the Harrison Coal and Reclamation Historical Park group as a fundraiser for upkeep and expansion of the historical park that started in the 1990s -- Esther McCoy

CADIZ — The memory of the mining industry in Harrison County still is vivid in the minds of those who worked to make Cadiz known as the land of King Coal, but there is a younger generation that has not heard of  the Silver Spade shovel or any large dirt moving equipment.

The Harrison Coal and Reclamation Historical Park group has been working for years to show the type of machinery and equipment once used to make the huge craters in the earth to remove coal or go into the underground mines and bring out the substance that was so important for industry and heating.

Years ago Leonard Corona of Smithfield, aerialist photographer for Hanna Coal and Consolidation Coal, took pictures of  the coal industry that are now part of history. The pictures are part of the Hanna Coal Collection and under the ownership of  Dale Davis, vice president of the Harrison Coal and Reclamation Historical Park. Claren Blackburn is the president.

“This is the seventh year for a calendar that depicts the coal industry. The first six years were on the large shovels used for mining the coal. This year we are focusing on the Georgetown preparation plant that started construction in May 1951, and had an open house on July 31, 1954,” Davis said.

The calendar costs $10, with $3 for shipping and handling. They can be obtained by sending a check to Dale Davis, 456 Park Ave., Cadiz, OH 43907, or at the Puskarich Library or Vicki’s Restaurant.

“Proceeds from the calendar sales go toward the upkeep of equipment at our reclamation park and the cost of insurance. We have 25 pieces of equipment, with 12 in full operation one time a year at the annual Stumptown Festival. It is always the first weekend after Labor Day,” he said.

Five businesses sponsored  this year’s calendar, according to Davis. They are James C. Dawes Co. Inc.; Ray Miller’s Excavating; Cadiz Motel; Utica Safety Apparel; and Martin McKim Enterprises.

The Georgetown plant had the capacity input of 1,500 tons of raw coal per hour, according to Davis. On average, an hourly output of 1,275 tons of clean coal product was produced. It occupied nearly 2 acres and had five floor levels above the tracks and reached 115 from tracks to roof, it was noted.

The journey of the raw coal from the below-ground receiving bin through the plant was on a belt that was 641 feet long and moved at a speed of just above 10 mph, Davis noted.

Each process of  the preparation plant is shown on a month of  the calendar and there are important dates to be remembered, such as the first Tuesday of each month is the HCRP visitors’ meeting, and the 13th-annual Harrison Coal and Reclamation Park annual show at Stumptown will be held Sept. 9.

The plant was dismantled after 1990. All that remains is a 6.5-acre lake and the memorabilia provided by Leonard Corona’s pictures, which are used on the calendars.