Ohio's Hidden Mine

so the terrain here in northeastern ohio seems to breed self-reliance and a particular sense of determination this coal mine was built in a secluded hollow surrounded by farmland and forests the owners trusted few but themselves i was just a helper in the mine i wasn't really a miner i was a helper and another friend of mine was here like i say when we got laid off we'd come down here and help as much as we could and try to educate ourselves and have marion and milton you know teach us the do's and don'ts of a coal mine don carnes was a trusted friend and began working alongside milton and marion desaker in what has been called ohio's hidden mine who were the desicca brothers they were world war ii veterans farmers turned coal miners twins who guarded their privacy gave freely of their time to neighbors and spurned any governmental regulations of their business in addition carnes calls them geniuses they were electricians they were carpenters they were welders they were plumbers there were coal miners i mean it goes on and on and off i learned a lot from these two guys but it's amazing how much how much they did and two guys they were twins and they started like in 1947 in this mind after the war the brothers were known for their hard work and ingenuity but the historical significance of the now abandoned desaker mine complex in tuscaroras county lies in the fact that it remained a viable two-man operation for decades and they were you know up there in age and marion like at 80 could almost i probably could outdo me on energy on just go go go go and i think it was just because and they didn't go to restaurants i tried to take him to a restaurant one day and he wouldn't go in because of germs and their food the type of food and he wouldn't go in not even for a cup of coffee the sheer volume of the work was astonishing because besides extracting the cold the desiccators first had to create the workflow infrastructure from the ground up never having done it before they built it from scratch and they had to do a blueprint they just couldn't bring lumber and start nailing together so they were you know they they designed stuff to make everything work there's a shaker up above and they bought a 80-foot conveyor from pennsylvania hauled it from there in pieces and bolted it all together and it goes all the way to the top in and dumps the coal into the shaker unlike the large corporate mines of the day the desecret twins sold their coal to residential and small business users in the area some who knew them also said they had at some time provided coal to heat the tuscaroras county courthouse in new philadelphia these relatively small lot sales also helped put them on the regulatory radar their privacy was paramount regardless of the agency they were bound and determined to discourage what they deemed as trespassing or interference with their constitutional rights the brothers ran afoul of the law numerous times from federal mine inspectors to confrontations with those they felt were illegally on their property like ohio edison lineman after 1969 the safety of mine employees and their working conditions was closely scrutinized the desiccers fought any such inspections citing the fact that they had no employees these run-ins were reported in local publications frequently enough that they were labeled the fighting desiccers in fact the twins had an older brother wayne who had periodically lived with and worked with the twins who would also find himself in and out of lawsuits involving bombing cases both as a victim and alleged perpetrator beginning as a surface or strip mine on the family property in 1947 milton and marion using heavy equipment literally tore into the earth to reveal the result of some 300 million years of heated pressurized matter coal and decades later there was still more coal as the desicca brothers expanded into deep mining this drift mine covered approximately 34 acres underground removing an estimated 100 000 tons of coal reserve and the coal was like five foot a good five foot of coal and they would cut the bottom like six foot in and maybe eight feet wide and then they drilled two holes at the top and that was they had electric back here so they didn't have to do it by hand they'd drill these holes and fill it full of dynamite two at the top and they would light them with with a fuse and then we'd only go from we'd probably go maybe 75 feet away and turn the corner and we'd squat down and the entry was where we the hallway was back through here and we come around the corner and and sit right here so you couldn't see the blast the concussion would come out and when it it would just sound like a bomb going off but real deep and it would that air and all that stuff would just kind of rush out not even really much dust using a method called room and tiller they extracted the coal section at a time leaving untouched columns of coal to support the roof or sealing of the mine the coal loader would scarf up the loose and broken chunks of coal and an onboard conveyor would send the load back to waiting coal cars the brothers purchase used 1920s era four-ton electric locomotives to push and or pull the coal-laden cars each of which could transport a two-ton load a trolley pole on the locomotive delivered electrical current from a 250-volt overhead cable two sets of tracks led to and from the mine portal through a covered production shed one led to a dump for mine refuse the other led to the coal dump for the tallest structure in the complex the tipple here the coal is processed for size by a mechanical shaker table and sorted through screens the coal then tumbles into hoppers where it's stored and ready to be loaded onto waiting dump trucks below destined for a customer the beating heart of the desecramine complex was the relatively small powerhouse without electricity everything but the sound of a pickaxe would fall silent a 480 volt ac three-phase rectifier housed here was fed by an aep transmission line that ran down over the high wall mine evident near the mine site are the material dumps these refuse piles are made up of coal tailings dirt rock shale or other materials these mounds got to where they are dump truck load at a time over decades both piles on this site extend over 1 8 mile long and 70 feet in height a relatively small amount when compared to larger corporate operations through the years the pair cobbled together mostly used in surplus equipment to fashion their small scale mining operation one example is this ventilation fan and pipe used to pump fresh air into the mine after years of doing the same duty on a naval ship in the end they made it all work for the desecret family being self-sufficient wasn't so much a goal in life but a way of life the work was hard and their lives were simple and greatly aided by a younger sister irene she did all the cooking and at noon it was i mean like clockwork at 12 o'clock you shut down whatever you were doing come out of the mine and you went to the house and it was like going to back in time or you would think you were eating with the waltons and just the strawberry wallpaper is still imprinted in my mind and they had their own beef on the farm so you got a hamburg or a piece of steak and an orange and a piece of candy every time you went in there you had a very balanced meal it was dessic or coal that would heat the kitchen stove for meals and burned in the family furnace to keep the home warm in 1997 50 years after they began mining milton was the first of the twins to pass away from complications related to heart disease and diabetes marion died tragically ten years later while he was alone at the mine site using a cutting torch to dismantle equipment for salvage and never recovered from the burns he received time along with changing economies and technologies has overtaken all but the stories of what had been accomplished here still usable equipment has been salvaged and auctioned off in preparation for the demolition of these remaining structures this site now owned by the camp tuscasore foundation will be reshaped into a safe natural setting under the expert guidance of the ohio department of natural resources abandoned mine land program one by one turning potentially hazardous abandoned mining operations into safe welcoming green space ohio has a long mining history with more than 3.6 billion tons of coal having been extracted from the coal bearing region since 1800 in the first 150 years there were no laws governing coal mining operations or reclamation hundreds of thousands of acres were mined and abandoned creating what is now referred to as abandoned mined land it wasn't until 1947 that mining legislation was first enacted in the state of ohio thirty years later as a result of the clean air act the federal government passed additional laws establishing stringent national standards for coal mining and reclamation with the passage of these more stringent laws came the creation of the federal abandoned mined land program since 1977 a federal tax has been imposed on each ton of coal mine nationwide this tax is used to administer the programs that regulate coal mining and the reclamation of aml within the ohio department of natural resources the division of mineral resources management is one of ten divisions the division of mental resources management's aml program is responsible for administering the federal program and for abating the highest priority public health and safety and environmental problems associated with abandoned mines these problems include subsidence mine gases and drainage landslides dangerous high walls hazardous structures and open mine portals and shafts expertise is provided by a staff experienced in the abatement of aml problems ohio receives an annual grant from the department of the interior's office of surface mining to reclaim the highest priority sites mining companies are not held responsible for the existence of abandoned mine problems as the reclamation requirements in existence at the time of mining and abandonment were minimal most of the companies in existence prior to the dates of effective reclamation laws no longer exist in the roughly 38 years of the aml program in ohio miles of dangerous high walls and sediment choke streams thousands of acres of abandoned strip mine land hundreds of acres of coal refuse piles and landslides and hundreds of open portals and shafts have been reclaimed restored stabilized or sealed approximately 90 percent of all abandoned mine projects are completed on privately owned land if you suspect a potential aml related problem on your property please contact the division of mental resources management's central office in columbus the division's website is also a valuable resource for mine related information and program contacts the ohio aml program is dedicated to the protection and service of all citizens of the state of ohio the history of ohio is told by the vision and ambition of its citizens this is just one story among many bringing that history to life for both the ohio department of natural resources and the state historic preservation office the jessica mine complex is as unique as the brothers who made it a family business new ground is being broken by this collaboration of the two organizations this video is a first since 1966 with the passage of the national historic preservation act the government began to recognize the cultural significance of those places that have contributed either directly or indirectly to the story of life in ohio and more broadly in the united states and then allowed for a process of evaluation that could lead to preservation this led to the creation of the national register of historic places which is a list of properties that have achieved national state or local levels of historic significance the vessel or family mine has been deemed to hold its distinct position in our state's culture while also being considered unsafe for the general public this is where the collaboration comes in we are preserving the desecras stories and images of their complex for future generations in this video as well as removing any danger which may be present at the abandoned mine site when significant properties are affected by a project some form of mitigation must occur many times this results in preservation through recordation given that digital media is now so commonplace in our society creative mitigation is being used and this is the first time that video documentation has been used for this type of project in ohio we are hoping to spread the design story to a wider audience in this manner it's a two-fold effort designed to best serve the citizens of ohio so you

Channel: OhioDNR

Views: 186,709

Rating: 4.7841563 out of 5

Keywords: ohio, natural, resources, nature, ohiodnr, odnr, Mining (Industry), Mine, Coal Mining (Industry)

Id: ZWvRMAur_Ds

Length: 18min 11sec (1091 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2015