Chalfant Run

1760: First Mining of Pittsburgh Coal

Pennsylvania’s bituminous coal industry was born about 1760 on Coal Hill, now Mt. Washington. Here the Pittsburgh coal bed was mined to supply Fort Pitt. This was eventually to be judged the most valuable individual mineral deposit in the US.

"Most of the hills on both sides of the Ohio are filled with excellent coal and a coal mine was in the year 1760 opened opposite Fort Pitt on the River Monongahela for the use of the Garrison."

--Captain Adam Stephen 1759 FORT DU QUESNE

Fort Pitt Map with Coal Pitt at the Bottom: ca.1761

Fort Pitt Map: ca. 1795

1840: Pittsburgh Developed as a Coal Port

Pittsburgh developed as a coal port; in this year coal shipments out of city totaled 464,826 tons.
The same year Pittsburgh had a Population of 21,515, and Allegheny was incorporated as a third-class city with a population of 10,989.

The city of Pittsburgh from Mount Washington:
ca. 1905.

Smoke pouring into the air from a Pittsburgh
steel mill: ca. 1906.

1910: the Boom of Pittsbrugh Steel

In 1910 Pittsburgh was manufacturing 60% of America’s steel. The U.S. Steel Corporation, which included Carnegie, was then the largest private company. During World War II, the city’s production reached 95 million tons.

U.S. Steel National Tube Works: ca. 1910

Photo of Andrew Carnegie, founder of Carnegie
Steel Company:
ca. 1919

1919: United Mine Workers Coal Strike

Forty two thousand miners in Pittsburgh district left jobs in start of nationwide strike closing coal mines; the National Guard was alerted.

On November 2, 1919, the Great Falls Daily Tribune published that around 394,000 bituminous miners out of a total of 615,000 employed by the coal industry were on strike, with the number of Pennsylvania strikers at the highest, at 100,000.

By December, the nationwide coal strike ended, but a national coal conservation order, restricting use of coal everywhere except in private homes, went into effect under rigid enforcement.

Unionization of Fellow Coal Miners outside of
the Coal Mining Facility
ca. 1919

Map Showing Principle Regions Affected by
the Coal Strike:
ca. 1919

Bob Satterfield Cartoon about the United Mine
Workers coal strike
ca. 1919

1946: Smoke Control Ordinance

On October 1, 1946, The city’s smoke-control law became effective for industry, railroads, and commercial establishments.

Influenced by a similar policy introduced in St. Louis four years earlier, the city of Pittsburgh passed a law designed to reduce coal production in pursuit of cleaner air. Not willing to cripple such an important part of the local economy, it promised to clean the air by using treated local coal.