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| Claghorn Mines
(ca.1916-1924), Claghorn, West Wheatfield Twp., Indiana Co., PA, Located on the Pennsylvania Railroad, Ebensburg & Blacklick Branch Line, on Blacklick Creek, at the mouth of Brush Creek, 1.5 miles northeast of Heshbon, at Claghorn, on the Brush Valley Twp., & West Wheatfield Twp., East Wheatfield Twp. Lines, Indiana Co., PA
The former coal company patch town of Claghorn was located
on the south side of Blacklick Creek, in West Wheatfield Township, Indiana
Cointy, Pennsylvania.
Vinton No. 11 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1903-after 1918),
Vinton No. 12 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1903-after 1919),
Vinton No. 13 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1917- ? ),
Vinton No. 14 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1917- ? ),
Vinton No. 16 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1918-1923),
Vinton No. 17 Mine (Claghorn Mines)
(ca.1918-1923), |
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| A portion of the ca.1922 USGS 15min. New Florance, PA
Quad. map showing the location of the former coal patch towns of Claghorn,
Heshbon and Dias on the Blacklick Creek in West Wheatfield Township,
Indiana Co., PA (Map courtesy of the US Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.) |
| DESCRIPTION: No buildings remain at the site of the coal company patch town of Claghorn, in West Wheatfield Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. The town of Claghorn is now a ghosttown, with only a few foundations existing. The routes of the old roads and traces of the streets may still be traced along the south shore of Blacklick Creek. The Claghorn bridge over Blacklick Creek survives, although the road it once served connecting Heshbon and Brush Valley has been closed for many years, and is now overgrown. The Pennsylvania Railroad was constructed on the north side of the Blacklick Creek through Claghorn between ca.1902 and ca.1904, today the railroad tracks have been removed and the railroad right-a-way has been converted into the Ghost Town Trail. |
| HISTORY: Six Drift mines were established around area were Claghorn was located by the Vinton Colliery Company. Vinton No. 11 Mine was located on the west side of the Blacklick Creek, just west of Brush Creek across from Claghorn, and Vinton No. 12 Mine was located on the north side of the Blacklick Creek and east of Brush Creek, across from Claghorn, these mines were in operation in 1917 and 1918. Vinton No. 13 Mine was located on the hill south of Claghorn, on the south side of Blacklick Creek; this was a drift mine with a railroad spur or narrow gauge line connecting with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Vinton No. 14 was located on the south side of the Blacklick, just south of Claghorn. Vinton No. 16 Mine was located about a mile east of Claghorn towards Dias, and Vinton No. 17 Mine was on the south side of Blacklick Creek in the same vicinity. Both mines were in operation from 1918 to 1923. The Lackawanna Coal & Coke Company, which operated the mines at Wehrum and Vintondale, acquired the Claghorn operations in ca.1903, and started to built the coal patch town of Claghorn, but due to an economic downturn in 1904 the work was stopped. The town site of Claghorn lay abandoned until the fall of 1916, when the Vinton Colliery Company reopened the mines and finished building the coal mining town of Claghorn. Eighty-four single family miners houses were built along a main street and three side streets, all the streets were lined with wooden sidewalks. Claghorn also had a theater, which also served as a church and the town schoolhouse. A company store was located in one of the houses. A three story twenty-two room hotel, and a company office building. (History and description of Claghorn Mines, adapted from with additional data "Indiana County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1993," America's Industrial Heitage Project, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) |
| "Coal Miners
Memorial, Claghorn Mines Claghorn, West Wheatfield Twp., IndianaCounty, Pennsylvania" |
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Mines of Indiana County, PA Contact: Ray Washlaski, Editor Copyright 2008, All rights reserved, by Raymond A. Washlaski, Ryan P. Washlaski & The 20th Century Society of Western Pennsylvania. Web site Design by "Mercers, an Undertakers" Web Design Company |
