DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FRANKLIN K. LANE, Secretary UNITED STA~ES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director Professional Paper 10~-A THE COAL FIELDS OF THE· UNITED STATES GENERAL INTRODUCTION BY MARIUS R. CAMPBELL Professional Paper 100, pages 1-33 Published February 24, 1917 W ASf.IINGTON GOVEHNMENT PRINT~NG OFFICE 1917 CONTENTS. Page. 1 i~~s:t:o:ls.c~:.e. ~~ ~~:~~~ ~ ·. ·. ·... · .·: : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ·~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ 3 Methods of classification ............................................................................. 3 Anthracite ........................... ~ ............................................ : ................. 5 Semia.nthraci te ..................................................................................... 5 Semi bituminous ..................................................................... ·................ 5 13ituminous ........................................................................................ 6 Sub bituminous ......................................................................... ·.............. 7 Lignite ..................... .'..... -........ ----.---------·.·.···--···································· 7 Comparison of the different ranks .................................................................... 8 Classification of the con.l areas of the United States ........................................................ 10 Coal district ........................................................................................ 10 Coal field ........................................................................................... 10 Coal region ......................................................................................... 10 11 The~~:~ ~;~::~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ :::: :: : : : : : : ~ ~ : : ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~: ~ ~ : : :·: :: : ~ : ~ :: ~: : ~ : ~ : : : : :: : : : : : ~ ~ ~ : : : : : ~ ~ 11 ]~astern province .......................................... ~ ........................................ ll Interior province .................................................................................. 13 Gulf province ...................................................................................... 13 Northern Great Plains province ....................................................................... 14 Rocky Mountain province ............................................................................ 16 Pacific coast province ............................................................................... 20 Production and original tonnage of coal in the United States .............................................. 23 Analyses of representative coals .......................................................................... 27 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. PJ,A'I'E I. Coal fields of the United States ............................................................ In pocket. Fmun.B l. Diagrams showing the chemical composition and heat efficiency of the several ranks of coal........ 8 2. Production of coal in the United States by decades from 1834 to 1914............................. 25 3. Estimated production of coal in the United States to the year 2055............................... 26 III 1.,HE COAL ·FIELDS OF THE UNirfED STATES. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. By MAJUUS H. CAMPBELL. r; 1., PURPOSE AND §~OPE OF REPORT. making a geologic atlas of the United States. This lack of activity in the examination of t~e '.!:''' The growing demailif. for fuel and the pro ba- coal resources was due largely ·to, the lack of bility that sooner or·~-~ater the United States interest in such work shown by qoal operators,. 1 will be called upon to furnish supplies to less owners, and consumers, 'as it was then gen~rr favored countries has made it desirable for the ally r(;}garded as unnecessary in the develop~ Geological Survey to take stock of the coun­ ment of a coal-bearing tract to have any geo­ try's fuel and to determine the qua~tity, logic information regarding the lay .of the beds quality, and geographic distribution of the and the quality or quantity of the. coal, and coal still in the ground and available for future the consumer purchased his coal with but little use. '!'his report is intended to supply such thought as to whether or not he ~as· getting information regarding the coal fields in the .the best available. fuel for the particular -use United States, arranged according to the States to which he expected to devote it. within which they lie. About that time, however, the public began The first effort to give to the public a com­ to awaken to the realization of the need of prehensive description of the great coal-be~ing utilizing better the fuel supply and to the fur­ areas of the country was .made by the Geo­ ther realization that great cfrauds had been logical Survey in 1902, by the publication, in perpetrated in the Western States in procuring the Twenty-second Annual Report of the valuable coal lands under the h'omestead act Director, of 12 papers dealing with the coal­ and laws other than the coal-land law, which bearing areas of the United States, including required .the payment to· the Government of Alaska. Unfortunately, this series of papers, not less than $10 or $20 an acre and restricted although exceedingly interesting and valuabie to 160 aGres the area that it was possible for as presenting a .summary of the then existing one person to acquire. In response to the lmowledge of some of the coal fields~ was public demand for the stopping of such fra:uds lamentably incomplete, for it contained no and for the better conservation of the fuel description of the rich fields of Maryland, West reserves of the country, President Roosevelt Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and Virginia; and in 19.06 withdrew from entry 66,000,000 acres the treatment of many of the western fields of supposed coal land, and the United States was unsatisfactory, for the reason that they Geological Survey was requested to classify had not been examined in detail, and conse­ these lands and appraise their value, so that · quent~y their boundaries and th~ir contents they might be sold at prices that ,accorded could be described in only a vague and indefi­ with the quantity and quality of coal available nite manner. in them. This was made possible by a new Up to the year 1905 the United States Geo­ interpretation of the phraseology of the coal­ logical Survey had·' made no effort to examine land law of 1873, which· specified that· co~tl and map systematically the· coal fields of the lands should be sold at not less than $10 an country, especially of the West; but a number acre if more than 15 miles from any completed of fields had been specially examined or had railroad and not less than $20 an acre if within been n1apped as a part of the general plan of 15 miles of a railroad. 1 2 THE COAL FIELDS OF THE UNITED STATES. I In anticipation of this action the Geological by the writer on entirely insufficient data were Survey had begun in 1905 the systematic ex­ modified considerably when additional infor­ amination of coal., fields in the public-land mation was obtained; but for a number of States and by 1908 had made sufficient prog­ years the result stood nearly as it was origi­ ress in that work. to issue the first" reasonably nally made. accurate map of the coal fields of the country, The next attempt to improve upon the old on a scale of about 120 miles to the inch. In maps of the coal· fields and the estimates of addition to outlining the coal fields, this map the reserves they contained was made by the differentiates the areas of known coal from writer oii invitation of the executive com­ the areas that might possibly contain valuable mittee of the International .Geological Con­ coal and shows also those area,s In which the gress for its twelfth session, at Ottawa, Canada, coal-bearing rocks are under deep cover. On in 1913. The International Geological C~n-' this map the coal fields are classified according gress had several years before decided to con­ to the rank of the coals they contain, or at sider at each session some subject of world­ .least three great groups are recognized, namely, wide interest, particularly some mineral re­ {1) anthracite, semianthracite, semibitumin,ous, source in which all countries would be inter­ and bituminous coal; (2) subbituminous coal; ested. Thus iron ore was considered at the and (3) lignite. In addition to delineating the eleventh session, which was held at Stockholm, coal fields, the map contains an estimate of the Sweden, in 1910, and a monograph summarizing tonnage of coal still remaining in the ground the knowledge then existing on this subject and supposedly available for the future needs was published. The executive committee de­ of the country. cided to take up the subject of coal for con­ The making of this estimate, crude though sideration at the twelfth meeting, at Ottawa, it was, marked an important step in the in­ and the results are incorporated in three large vestigation of the, Nation's resources, for it volumes of descriptive text and an atlas show­ was the first attempt to make a quantitative ing the coal fields of the world. These vol­ estimate that would enable the public tQ cal­ umes are a storehouse of information, but culate the length of time the fuel supply might their small edition and great cost make their be available. The writer in making this esti­ general distribution impossible. N atur~;tlly, in mate was