The Hecla Coke Company developed its Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, and coal-patch-town of Trauger, Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. W.G.Wilkins, a Pittsburgh mining engineer, was retained by the company to design and lay out the colliery and mine and coke works. The coal company sank a mine shaft about 223 feet deep and lined it with large oak timbers. The mine shaft contained three sections, two of which were used for hauling men, coal and materials. The third section was for the pumpway. The original tipple head frame was of heavy timber construction, stood 35 ft. high, and supported iron sheaves 12 feet in diameter for hoisting the cages. The Jeansville Iron Works of Jeansville, Pennsylvania, manufactured the winding engines which were housed in a brick engine house, the building measuring 50 feet x 40 feet. The Boilers, which supplied the steam to run the engines, were housed in a brick building with an iron roof, the building measuring approx. 79 feet x 54 feet.   Coal was to be delivered from the tipple to large holding bins from which the coke oven Larries were charged, the Larries would then haul the coal to the nearby large bee-hive oven coke works, that was under-construction and was to contain 500 ovens when completed.  The Stark Brothers of Greensburg served as contractors for the construction of the Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works and mine buildings.

In addition, the Hecla Coke Company contracted with the firm of Wallis & Carley of Sharon, Pennsylvania, to build twenty-three double frame houses, along with a mine office building, various other mine buildings and a large company store building in Trauger, Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.

By 1890 these facilities were complete and the Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works was in operation. Miners produced nearly 98,000 tons of coal in 1890 and the coke works, with 499 bee-hive ovens in operation, produced more than 61,000 tons of coke. Both the mine and coke works employed 260 miners. These production figures rose to 357,000 tons of coal produced annually by 1900 and 254,000 tons of coke produced that year, using 499 bee-hive coke ovens. The company employed 448 men and boys at Hecla No. 2 Mine, Trauger, PA, in 1900.

In 1905 the H.C. Frick Coke Company acquired the Hecla Coke Company and installed H. L. Henderson as superintendent at the Trauger Mine & Coke Works.  Through the 1910's, Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works was averaging about 225,000 tons of coal and 140,000 tons of coke each year.  The population at the coal company patch town of Trauger during the 1910's was about 1,000 persons.

Improvements to Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works in 1910 included: One permanent overcast and six permanent stoppings were built with brick and cement.  A new mine pump complete with bole holes to surface was installed.  Coke oven yards track renewed with 85 pound rails, and a trestle from the coal bins to the coke ovens was renewed. Work started on safety latches for the mine shaft cages.

The H.C. Frick Coke Company continued to operate Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works until ca.1925, when Frick permanently closed the mine and coke works and abandoned the coal plant.

(History and description of Hecla No. 2 Mine & Coke Works, adapted with much additional data and pictures from "Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, 1994,"  America's Industrial Heritage Project, National Park Service, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, U.S. Department of the Interior, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

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