Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Altoona Tribune
Wednesday, December 2, 1896
Undeveloped Coal Lands
The Saxmans of Latrobe Lease Another New Field
From the Greensburg Tribune.
As the outcome of the recent election, it is now almost certain that the development of new coal fields in Ligonier valley on a gigantic scale will be begun within the next few months. Early last summer the project of opening up this new coal field was taken up by prominent coal and coke capitalists, and it was then definitely decided that the new field would be brought in.
Hon. Samuel D. Murphy was employed and during the summer he secured leased and options on many thousand acres of land in the new filed between Ligonier and Bolivar and New Florence, on the Pennsylvania railroad main line. In August the work of leasing land was suspended, but early in November it was taken up again, and now a scope of country a dozen miles in length and half as wide is under lease or option.
Chief among those interested in this new field are the Saxmans, who operate a number of plants at Latrobe and other points on the Pennsylvania railroad. The lands now owned by the Saxmans along the Pennsylvania railroad are pretty well worked out, and this has had much to do with this decision to enter the new field.
The Saxmans are also desirous of entering into the manufacture of coke by the by-product methods, and a big plant of ovens of one of these systems will be erected in the new field. Last year these operators were in Belgium, Germany and other European countries and made a thorough study of the Otto Hoffman, Semet-Solvay and other German systems of by-product ovens, and have decided to adopt one of these. Besides the Saxmans there are a number of Philadelphia and New York capitalists interested in the development of the new field.
The opening up of this new coal region will necessitate the construction of considerable new railway lines. Already the Pennsylvania railroad has made a survey of a new line from Bolivar and one from New Florence into the new field. The Ligonier Valley road has the most direct and practicable route, and by an extension of half a dozen miles can reach the filed. The Beech Creek has also made several surveys, and as the field is on a direct line to New Haven, the end of the Pittsburg, McKeesport and Youghiogheny railroad, it is likely that this road will take the route. The opening of this new field will be only the beginning of the development of a region almost as extensive as the Connellsville region, and the Beech Creek would run through the heart of the new region for nearly twenty miles. The South Penn also intersects the new field.
The vein which will be worked is a nine foot one, and thorough tests of the coal leave no doubts of its value as a coking coal. The decision to enter this new field was made by the Saxmans and their eastern partners early last summer, but delays in securing absolute control of the lands in the new fields retarded development. The next few months will see the work commenced.