This book documents the history of the coal mines and coal towns of Thoms Run hollow. Read about the development of coal towns Beechmont, Hickman, Federal, Burdine, and Presto, PA. Get a sense of where the mines and towns were located, and about life in the coal patches. Understand the tough life that miners had in rural Pennsylvania. Learn the rich history of how one little road supported so much coal production and the development of Collier Township, PA

This work reflects part of the history of Wyoming coal mining. Much more needs to be written. To those that have produced written histories, historical overviews, and manuscripts we cited here, we extend thanks. To the archaeologists and historians who are studying Wyoming's past and attempting to preserve its lasting legacy, we applaud your efforts. The flight of time is not complete, but the history that has passed shows coal miners will be a part of the future. To those that are attempting to preserve the mining history of Wyoming and the West, we are grateful. And to men such as Steven Creasman and Gary Beach, who have the courage to dream and the willingness to persevere in attempting to save America's past, thank you. With the help of such unselfish individuals this work has been strengthened, but the responsibilities of accuracy fall to the authors alone.

In a devastating and urgent work of investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby uncovers the tragic resurgence of black lung disease in Appalachia, its Big Coal cover-up, and the resilient mining communities who refuse to back down. Decades ago, a grassroots uprising forced Congress to enact long-overdue legislation designed to virtually eradicate black lung disease and provide fair compensation to coal miners stricken with the illness. Today, however, both promises remain unfulfilled. Levels of disease have surged, the old scourge has taken an aggressive new form, and ailing miners and widows have been left behind by a dizzying legal system, denied even modest payments and medical care. In this devastating and urgent work of investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby traces the unforgettable story of how these trends converge in the lives of two men: Gary Fox, a black lung-stricken West Virginia coal miner determined to raise his family from poverty, and John Cline, an idealistic carpenter and rural medical clinic worker who becomes a lawyer in his fifties. Opposing them are the lawyers at the coal industry’s go-to law firm; well-credentialed doctors who often weigh in for the defense, including a group of radiologists at Johns Hopkins; and Gary’s former employer, Massey Energy, the region’s largest coal company, run by a cantankerous CEO often portrayed in the media as a dark lord of the coalfields. On the line in Gary and John’s longshot legal battle are fundamental principles of fairness and justice, with consequences for miners and their loved ones throughout the nation. Taking readers inside courtrooms, hospitals, homes tucked in Appalachian hollows, and dusty mine tunnels, Hamby exposes how coal companies have not only continually flouted a law meant to protect miners from deadly amounts of dust but also enlisted well-credentialed doctors and lawyers to help systematically deny much-needed benefits to miners. The result is a legal and medical thriller that brilliantly illuminates how a band of laborers — aided by a small group of lawyers, doctors and lay advocates, often working out of their homes or in rural clinics and tiny offices – challenged one of the world's most powerful forces, Big Coal, and won. A deeply troubling yet ultimately triumphant work, Soul Full of Coal Dust is a necessary and timely book about injustice and resistance.

The Author’s pioneer ancestors were early settlers in the western movement, sometimes trekking roughly cleared pathways behind teams of oxen. Family meetings and marriages at New Ipswich, NH, Watervliet, NY, New Castle, KY, Richmond, IN, Old Oxford, IL, Mt. Pleasant, IW, Firth, NE, and Denver, CO, form the basis of this historical and genealogy story. Family chronicles, deeds, wills, census records, tombstones and written biological sketches form the basis for this book. Research was conducted in 87 counties in 22 states from Maine to Colorado, and also Wales, Scotland and England, over a 16 year period.

Leechtown, Wellington, Bevan, Kildonan, Fort Rupert, Cape Scott . . .Vancouver Island's ghost towns dot the Island from its southern end to its northern tip, and their stories chart the boom and bust of the resource economy that still characterizes the region. Well illustrated with maps and an abundance of photos, archival and modern, Ghost Towns & Mining Camps of Vancouver Islandis filled with tales of the famous and the not-so-famous. The Dunsmuirs appear throughout the book, but so do the First Nations who lived here first and the many European and Asian settlers who were drawn by the promise of wealth and land.

Plainview-Old Bethpage presents an intriguing story of two vibrant Long Island communities that share a colorful 300-year-old history. They were once quaint farming communities that almost overnight found themselves facing seismic cultural changes. In just 10 years, from 1950 to 1960, the combined population of Plainview and Old Bethpage soared from 2,000 to over 33,000. Plainview-Old Bethpage presents a journey back in time to the Native Americans, the settlers who followed, the farmers who worked the land, and the thousands who came to make a better life for their families. Discover why every town surrounding Plainview-Old Bethpage has a railroad station but it does not. Read about the resident who raised a Confederate flag during the Civil War and drew the ire of his neighbors. Ride along with race car drivers as they hurtle along dirt roads at breakneck speed. Learn about the deadly brawl on Election Day in 1890, the infamous Plainview kidnapper who got the electric chair, and a local company's role in molding a national memorial to Vietnam veterans.