Breese, IL: B&O Depot and Three Coal Mines

Depot: (Satellite)

West Mine: (Satellite)
North Mine: (Satellite)
East Mine: (Satellite)

Was Oct 2013 before they isolated this B&O route across southern Illinois?

Street View, Oct 2013

Rails Around Southern Illinois posted
C&O #614 steams east past a crowd of onlookers at the depot in Breese, milepost 298, on April 25, 1981. CSX removed the siding in 2021 but the depot still stands. (Don Wirth)
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Michael C Kelly shared
Breese, IL on the now-dead former B&O St Louis line.

The directory on the ISGS site has serious omissions. But from the article below we can conclude that

• 2044 was the 1881 West Mine that became the Consolidated Coal Co.
• 199 was the 1886 East Mine that became the Citizen's Coal Co.
• 198 was the 1904 Koch's Mine that became the North Mine of Breese Coal Co. In 1911, it produced 2700 to 3000 tons a day.

Map

Unfortunately, the above map did not include any north/south roads so I could not find the mines on the aerial photo below. But this topo marks the location of the North and East mines.

1906 Breese Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

I include an overview and then a closeup of each tipple at photo resolution.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

West

North

East

Dave Durham posted six images with the comment: "B&O, Breese Illinois ; I included some info on a couple of very old bridges from that article Dennis DeBruler."
[The text pages are much easier to read if you save them and then use an app to view them at 100% zoom.]

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[I thought tied arch bridges were a recent design. But this shows that they have been around for a long time. This bridge is now replaced by yet another concrete slab bridge. In a 1938 aerial photo, it looks like it had a truss span.]

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Citizen/East Mine at Facebook Resolution

Consolidated/West Mine at Facebook Resolution

Facebook Resolution
[Since the article was written after 1955, I would expect this bridge to show up in a 1938 aerial photo. But I could not find it.]

The description of the settlement, including a couple of mills, around the old toll bridge reminded me that until the 1850s, settlements were dictated by water, both power and transportation. Starting in the 1850s, the economy transitioned from water to steam, both stationary steam engines and railroads. Specifically, the economy in Breese Township moved from along the river to where coal was found along the railroad.

Dennis DeBruler posted two photos with the comment:

While studying the coal mines in Bresse, IL, I noticed the wye on the north side of the B&O tracks east of town in this 1938 aerial (yellow rectangle). The reason for posting this is not because of lines on the map. It is because there is still such an obvious "landscar" in a farmer's field.
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.606991,-89.5137359,306m/data=!3m1!1e3

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Update:

Roger Kujawa posted
C.U. Williams 1909 Lithograph Breese & Trenton Coal Mine At Breese, Illinois
Roger Kujawa shared

Ken Morrison commented on Roger's share
Could have been East or North; both shafts located right on the B&O, and both owned by Breese & Trenton at some point

Another update:

Danielle Murray posted three images with the comment: "North Mine (Koch's Mine) in Breese, IL. Photo from 1905, map from 1943, powder house as it stands today. If anyone has additional photos, please share!"

Dennis DeBruler: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILLRRHISTORYBUFFS/posts/3799744143585057/ See Ken's comment: we don't know if this is the North or East mine.

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