Industry's Impact in Southeast Ohio

PART I

Ohio's Hill Country was rich in natural resources but relatively difficult to farm because of its steep topography and poor soil. Much of the natural resources which were extracted in Southeast Ohio were taken elsewhere for processing, a fact that had a significant impact on the area's economic development and wealth.

Timber

The first resource tapped by the newly arrived settlers was the vast forest that covered much of Ohio. Legend holds that the forest was so thick that a squirrel could travel from the Ohio River to Lake Erie without ever touching ground. Pioneers quickly began cutting down the trees, relying upon the forest to provide many of their basic needs. Lumber was used to build houses, barns, buildings, forts and fences. Trees were also used for firewood, first in the home and later to fuel industries. Vast areas of Ohio's forests were cleared to create farmland.

Oxen pulling logs to a landingTeams of oxen haul cut trees to a portable sawmill in the 1940s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

portable sawmill

Operators cut a white oak log into lumber on a portable sawmill operated by William Arbaugh on the Athens Ranger District.

Ohio's forests contained some of the finest hardwoods in the world, including black walnut, black cherry and white oak. In the early 1800s, the timber industry began cutting and exporting lumber from Ohio. At its peak in 1849, Ohio ranked fourth among the states in lumber production. But marketable trees were soon gone, and by 1920 virtually no areas were left uncut in Ohio.

picture of men making charcoal

Much of the low-grade timber in Ohio's Hills Country was cut to make charcoal which was used in a variety of industries, including the iron industry of the Hanging Rock region. The process for making charcoal involved burning a pile of cordwood under a pile of dirt that reduced the amount of oxygen for the fire. The reduced oxygen meant the wood charred rather than burned. Here David and Floyd Malone remove charcoal from the pile and quickly cover the remaining wood with dirt in 1942. This pit has burned for seven days and is about one-third its original size.

 

Salt

Today, salt is so plentiful and inexpensive that people rarely think about how important it is.  To Native Americans and early European settlers salt was important as a preservative for meats and as a spice.  Along the Ohio frontier, salt was such an important commodity that it was carried over the Appalachian Mountains on packhorses and sold for as much as $6 per bushel. 

The salt licks along the Salt Lick Creek in Jackson County were so vital that the 1802 legislation to create Ohio forbid the state from selling the salt lands.  Instead, the salt licks were leased to brine producers. 

By the time of the Civil War, Ohio was a leading state in salt production.  One of the most successful salt plants was in Pomeroy, Meigs County, which continued to produce salt until the 1970s.

 The image below is an 1875 lithograph of the Salina Saltworks.

Athens Saltworks

 

Coal

Coal played a pivotal role in the growth and development of Ohio and in the industrial development of the nation. Mining began in Southeast Ohio as early as 1800, and active mines were located in Meigs County in 1806. By 1820, 10 southeastern counties were mining coal; by 1870 that number had grown to 30 counties. Throughout the 1800s, coal production relied primarily on deep mines, which required miners to work underground.

horse at mineCoal mining at that time was not mechanized but required hand cutting, digging and loading, while the coal was usually hauled to the surface by animal power. A team of two men and a horse could haul at one and a half tons of coal per hour. When this photo was taken in 1951, coal brought about $4 per ton.

Between 1800 and 1948, cumulative coal production in Ohio produced more than two billion tons from underground mines. Mining was a dangerous occupation because of the tunnel collapses, explosions and the ever-present dust and gases in the mines. The worse mine disaster in Ohio occurred just east of Millfield in Athens County November 5, 1930 when an explosion in the mine killed 82 men, including the company president, vice president, chief engineer, mine superintendent and visitors who were inspecting newly installed safety devices. One hundred and nine miners were saved.

Sidwell Tipple

Coal tipples, like this one operated by Sidwell Bros. Inc., were a common sight throughout Ohio's Hill Country. Coal was hauled in at the top by truck and then sorted in the tipple to be loaded at the bottom into railroad cars or trucks for shipment.

Mine safety and wages were chief concerns of the mine communities, and one of the earliest labor unions was established in Shawnee in Perry County. Although a secret organization at first because miners feared reprisal from mine operators, the Knights of Labor soon became a powerful organization with 700,000 members nationwide by 1881. The Knights of Labor demanded higher wages, shorter work hours and an end to child labor. The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1890 by the merger of Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Union of Miners and Mine Laborers.

Between World War II and 1970, the number of underground mines decreased but coal production increased as the result of surface mining. Surface mining was introduced in the 1880s but increased after the construction of the Panama Canal, when large steam shovels became available around 1914. Shovels with the capacity to hold 75 to 95 tons of earth were shipped to Ohio mines from the Canal Zone.

coal shovel

This large shovel working on the Ironton Ranger District in 1954 was typical of strip-mining operations in Ohio's Hills Country. The relative size of the dump trucks indicates the size of the "high wall" rock face exposed by the digging.

Big Muskie, photo compliments of AEP

Technological developments permitted construction of giant shovels for strip mining; perhaps the best known of these was the "Big Muskie", the largest walking dragline ever built. Operational from 1969 to 1991, Big Muskie moved more than 483 million cubic yards of earth in its lifetime nearly twice the volume moved to dig the 40-mile Panama Canal. The bucket from Big Muskie - which could hold the equivalent of a two-story house - can be seen in a park on Route 78 near McConnellsville.

Continue to Part II of Industries Impact to Southeastern Ohio