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According to a local historian, that stopped by, this area was not the coal mine itself, which was further down the road, but the area that was our parking lot was an open pit area that was scrapped clean of the coal and the wall is the original wall that was left as the coal ran out. He explained how convicts were used to mine the coal, but after a couple of accidents the Georgia legislature passed a law in 1903 that convicts wold not be allowed to go deeper than 3 feet underground.
The remains of the buildings are still down the road as well as the ball field where the miners stayed and played. He told of the life of miners that would arrive late Sunday and stay there until Friday when they used a trail down his property, Jacobs Trail, when all you saw was the lamps going down the trail when miners were allowed to go home. He knew kids that the only time they saw their fathers was to get up on Saturday morning, see them, and the next day go to church and have them leave for another week.
As for us, everyone found something. Kids had a blast finding the small fossils right in the parking lot. Others found larger plates deeper in the woods.For those that wanted something different there was the coal samples to be found.
Report and photos by George Libby.
