Kaskaskia, IL: This Town was isolated when the Mississippi River meandered east

(Satellite, the Illinois border (dotted white line) shows the original course of the Mississippi River.)

USACE, St. Louis District posted three images with the comment:

The original Village of Kaskaskia, Illinois was once a center of trade and culture until later in the 1800s, when the Mississippi River started to migrate towards the Kaskaskia River.
The combination of the heavy snowfall and ice jams on the river from St. Louis, Missouri to Cairo, Illinois in the winter of 1880 and 1881 caused the Mississippi River current to penetrate behind the obstructions.
The Mississippi River ultimately, over the course of several years, swallowed up the Kaskaskia River as well as the original village of Kaskaskia.

Vanessa Byer: Kaskaskia was the first capital of Illinois before they moved it to Vandalia and then to Springfield.

Larry Braun: I read once that cutting all the trees down to fuel the steam boats contributed to this change of course.

Perry Whitaker: Larry Braun - The trees were clear cut on both sides of the river so the river just went wild. It was like meandering on steroids.

Dave Erzfeld: I had coworker that grew up on the island. He had an Illinois drivers license but the address was PO BOX St. Mary, Mo.

He laughed... Try explaining that to a cop when you get pulled over 🙂

Steve Tuba Hoog: Almost unrelated except that it's in the map.."St Marys" is now actually, St Mary. About 20 years ago someone found the original city charter. They had to change all the official stuff to reflect the legal name. But no one seems to know when it changed.

[Some comments claim that the New Madrid Earthquake help change the flow. But others point out that the earthquake was in 1811-12 while this change happened in 1880-81.]

Tommy Burgdorf: shared

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Blake Rabe commented on the above post
Wish i could have seen this back before it was an island!
[Note that the town was gone by 1909.]

Jon Ray Thomas Roche commented on the above post, cropped
My Ancestral Roche family immigrated to Kaskaskia in 1841 from Fermoy Ireland. Having purchased the former State house to live in.

The Immaculate Conception Chapel is about the only thing left.

Street View, Jun 2024

Matthew Range, Jun 2021

Colusa, IL: Lost/CB&Q Depot

(Satellite, based on the aerial photo below.)

Patty Peterson posted
Colusa Depot (Historical Sites and Structures of Hancock County)
Kam Miller shared
Colusa was on the CB&Q line between Carthage and Dallas City, Illinois.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

1902

The town hasn't grown much, but the grain elevator has. In fact, I see that it is owned by Consolidated Grain & Barge. Normally, they require rail and/or barge service. So, I looked around to see what this town was close to. CGB has a barge loading facility in Dallas City, so they are willing to truck the grain a few miles to feed the barges. Since they can go from truck directly to barge, the short drive from this elevator should be economic.

Street View, Aug 2024

Toadvine, AL: Peabody Shoal Creek Mine west of Birmingham, AL

Prep Plant: (Satellite)

Mine: (Satellite)

Warrior Met #7 West Portal: (Satellite, is this a different company? Yes, I found more of their stuff in the area.)

This is one of those wilderness areas in the Appalachians where there are nearby churches, but no nearby towns. Where do the workers at the preparation plant live?

The overhead conveyor is going to an auxiliary storage pile.

Street View, Sep 2025

They ship by barge. The barge dock is on the west side. That dock is on the Bankhead Reservoir on the Black Warrior River.

Satellite

Mining #Shorts posted

Shoal Creek is one of Peabody’s most important U.S. metallurgical coal assets, tucked into Alabama’s Warrior Coal Basin across Jefferson, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties.

This isn’t a power-station coal story. Shoal Creek produces high-volatile A hard coking coal, a steelmaking product shipped into seaborne markets through Mobile.

Peabody bought the operation from Drummond in December 2018 for $387 million, adding an underground longwall mine, preparation plant and river logistics system to its portfolio.

The mine sits about 35 miles west of Birmingham and works the Mary Lee and Blue Creek seams at depths of roughly 1,000 to 1,300 feet. Coal moves by barge along the Black Warrior River, then heads to the McDuffie Terminal at the Port of Mobile.

Peabody lists 2025 output at 1.8 million tons, with 13 million tons of proven and probable reserves and about 400 employees tied to the site.

Shoal Creek has also had its share of trouble. In 2023, Peabody sealed two longwall panels after a fire involving void fill material in the J panel area. The company later shifted development toward the L panel area, where it expected better mining conditions.

Shoal Creek remains a serious Alabama coal operation: deep, technical, export-focused and directly linked to global steelmaking rather than domestic electricity generation.

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Photo: Peabody Energy

Since they mine coal to produce coke, I added the label "metalIron" to these notes.

The map label for the mine is a maintenance facility. Around it is a lot of evidence of past strip mining even though they have done a decent job of land reclamation. I finally found active mining which is in the upper-right corner of this excerpt. But I could not find any mining equipment! Draglines and/or shovels and haul trucks are big enough to show up on a satellite image. The prep plant is near the bottom of this excerpt.

Satellite

I did find some miscellaneous equipment parked up on the north side of the mining activity.

Satellite

When I saw that the mine was north of Bankhead Lake, but the prep plant was south of the lake, I wondered how they got the coal from the mine to the plant. I quickly found this conveyor belt coming out of the ground in the prep plant.

Satellite

One reason why I spent some time looking for an active mining area was to see if I could find the other end of the conveyor. I think I did:

Satellite

Is the prep plant recent? I don't see it in the lower-right corner where it should be on this map.

1978/78 Tutwiler School Quad @ 24,000

Elberton, GA: 1910 SAL Depot, Southern Caboose & Freight House and Granite Museum

Depot: (Satellite)

Southern Freight House: (Satellite)

Southern Turntable: (Satellite)

Museum: (Satellite)

SAL Depot

I tried different views, but I could not read what was on the marker in any of the views.

Street View, Nov 2022

Street View, Jul 2023

Tom Weber posted two photos with the comment:

Seaboard Air Line Railway Depot in Elberton is an historic depot built in 1910.  

The passenger station served the Seaboard Air Line’s “Silver Comet” which was finally discontinued in 1969.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Southern Railway X622 is a short-body bay-window caboose currently on display in Elberton, Georgia next to the historic Elberton depot along an active CSX line.

Davis Paul: Does anyone know if Southern ever served Elberton .. maybe off the Lula branch?

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Dennis DeBruler commented on Davis' comment
A topo map shows that Southern went along the north side of SAL to a turntable just west of Oliver Street. 1958 Elberton Quad @ 62,500.

Gary Miller commented on Tom's post
The sister station is located in Richland, GA !

Southern Freight House

Street View, May 2023

Dennis DeBruler commented on Davis' comment
 In fact, the extant freight house that is north of Railroad Street, https://maps.app.goo.gl/AmFXLLEqqjXBV2T18, was probably for Southern.

Granite Museum

Note the spire next to the building to the right of the power pole.

Street View, May 2026

Leon Demond, Nov 2024

M, Jan 2019

M, Jan 2019

Jordan Baer, Oct 2023

Fall Hiker, Jul 2021

I not only saw blocks of granite in storage lots around town, but I also saw this one on the move.

Street View, Nov 2022

Dixie Granite sells wholesale granite for monuments.

DixieGranite

There are a lot of granite-oriented businesses in this town. Keystone Granite Interiors sells countertops.

Sarah Pullen, Sep 2025

KeystoneGraniteInteriors

New Haven, CT: Enstructure Northeast receives SENNEGOEN 895

(Satellite)

I came across this video in my Facebook feed:

Facebook Reel

This raised the question of what kind of equipment has crawler tracks that big? The answer is a dock-side material handler. Since this is the second one that is being delivered to this dock, I found a video of the construction of the first handler.

3:57 video via sennebogen @ 3:31, cropped
Sennebogen 895 E Hybrid - Assembly and Operation

The 895 E is the largest Material Handler in the world - The specific machine is the largest 895 E built to date, weighing in at just under 1 million lbs. 

Visit us at: www.TylerEquipment.com for more details.

Machine Info:

Groundbreaking dimensions - extreme power: The SENNEBOGEN 895 E Hybrid impresses with an operating weight of around 420 t and a reach of up to 40 m. It is the giant of the port handling machines with an impressive amount of handling power when it comes to moving scrap and coal. The double Green Hybrid system makes the largest material handler in the world more efficient during operation.

An earlier view showed that the barge crane is the WEEKS 533.  I've seen WEEKS cranes help build the Cuomo Bridge and salvage the Francis Scott Key wreckage.

@ 1:48

They built the upper body assembly that we see in the above view on the barge before they lifted it and attached it to the gantry base on the dock. The largest component of that assembly was the boom.

Facebook Reel

The pan attachment is used to load material into a ship.

@ 3:07

Hancock, MI: 1846-1945 Quincy Copper Mine and Incline (Funicular)

Head House: (Satellite)

Incline: (Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2024

Craig C posted three photos with the comment: 

Super impressive mechanical machine from 1918. That's the largest steam powered hoist dru - for a 9000'+ incline. 1000000+ lbs put together in pieces after the building was up due to delivery delays because of steel rations in WWI.

Terrifying man skip too!

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This appears to be next to the drum in Photo 3 above.

Lisha Dong, Sep 2024

QuincyMine
"Quincy Mine is nestled in the quiet town of Hancock, Michigan. The Quincy Mining Company was one of the largest producers of copper within this area’s world renowned mining district. Operating underground from 1846 to 1945, the Quincy Mine produced nearly one billion pounds of copper that fueled the industrialization of our nation."

Quincy Mine posted
The Shaft House is lighted tonight and for the entire month of May for Neurofibromatosis (NF) Awareness Month, to bring awareness for a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body. NF affects one in 2,000 people in all populations. There is no cure, yet. Visit the Children’s Tumor Foundation www.ctf.org or Neurofibromatosis Michigan www.nfmich.org for more information.

Quincy Mine posted
Looking for something to do on a rainy day? How about a trip back into history with a  tour at Quincy Mine! Our early tours are already booked, but we'd be glad to do a tour at 1:30 pm today (Friday) if enough folks are interested. And to make it even more enticing, this is an "Everyone's a Student!" weekend in celebration of MTU commencement. Show up with a student and everyone gets in for the student price! (half off for adults!). Book online at www.quincymine.com or call the Gift Shop at 906-482-3101 for more information.

Richard Wilde, Jan 2026

Lester Brubaker, Aug 2025

Lisha Dong, Sep 2024