Franklin C: West Frankfort, IL: Old Ben #9 Coal Mine

(Satellite, the mine closed in 1968, so there are no structures left)

TheSouthern, photo 12 of 27
The story that accompanied this photo, published in The Southern on Feb. 15, 1968, reads: "Old Ben Coal Corp. mine No. 9 at  West Frankfort, the oldest operating deep shaft coal mine in Illinois, has closed down effective today, company officials announced. The last shift at No. 9 finished working at midnight Wednesday. The mine, which employes 311 men, closed because of 'the greatly changed character of present coal markets and the ever-increasing costs of underground mining in over-age properties,' according to a press release issued by Old Ben."
TheSouthern
Larry Joe Jenkel posted

Dave Durham posted
Old Ben Coal Mine 1920s, West Frankfort, Newberry Library, Chicago and the Midwest
[I presume this is #9 instead of Old Ben #8.]

west-frankfort from counties, p19

west-frankfort from counties, p i, 290%

The johnston_city quadrangle overlaps with the west-frankfort quadrangle. It is disconcerting that west-frankfort marks the overlapped area as HER (High-Extraction Retreat) whereas johnston_city marks it as RPP (Room & Pillar Panel).

johnston_city from counties, p i, 80%

Given that we see square lakes have already formed in this 1938 aerial photo, I believe the west-frankfort map is the correct one.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

The square lake up by the tipple is probably a holding pond for mine wastes, but the squares south of the tipple are probably land subsidence.

The railroad coming in from the north was an IC branch. The railroad coming from the west was a CB&Q branch. The railyard we see in the old aerial on the west side of #9 was the Cambell Yard. It was jointly owned by CB&Q and IC. You can easily trace the abandoned IC branch north because it was straight and there are a lot of treelines left. The branch joined a still existing CN/IC branch near Muddy River.

It is a good thing that someone did not allow development over the HER mining area because it looks like there have been several more areas of subsidence.

Satellite