Built on Coal

Walker County’s Rich Mining History

Sipsey, Alabama (1913)

Words by Jennifer Cohron | Images sourced by Pat Morrison

A tale often told is one of how early settlers discovered coal in Alabama.

In the 1820s, two young men on a hunting expedition set up camp by Lost Creek in Walker County. They used stones from the creek while building a fire. In the night, they woke up to find the rocks were glowing, and they ran away terrified.

Though reputable sources suggest it is most likely that the incident happened along the Cahaba River, coal has been inextricably linked to Walker County for so long that local storytellers can be forgiven for wanting to place the county at the center of such an origin story.

Walker County was, quite literally, built on coal.

The amount of coal contained inside Walker and several adjacent counties included in the Warrior Coal Basin was estimated to be three times the amount found in Pennsylvania by State Geologist Eugene Smith in the 1880s. "If this coal was spread out evenly over the surface, it would cover the whole State of Alabama…over two feet in thickness," Smith wrote.

Walker County was in its infancy when the first loads of coal were shipped by flatbed boat to Mobile. The coal was not extracted from the depths of a mine but from the riverbed. Depending on the size of the pieces removed with crowbars and pickaxes, the coal was brought up either by several men diving under the surface or by crane.

Tents set up for mine workers | Gorgas (year unknown)

Before the Civil War, mining was a pursuit of individuals rather than companies. Francis Musgrove, son of Jasper founder Dr. Edward Gordon Musgrove, was among the men who mined coal from the river and accompanied it on its treacherous journey to Mobile.

The transportation of coal was more dangerous than its mining in those early days. Boats loaded with coal were sometimes lost while attempting to navigate Squaw Shoals, a rocky stretch of the Black Warrior River later swallowed up by the construction of locks and dams.

The journey could only be attempted at certain times of the year when the water level was high enough. Shipments that made it safely to their destination were worth ten dollars a ton.

The challenges of traversing the river necessitated the arrival of a new form of transportation before the coal mining industry could truly get its start.

The Corona Coal Company was formed in the 1880s. L.B. Musgrove, son of coal mining pioneer Francis Musgrove, served as vice president. It was from the Corona mines that the first load of coal left the county by rail in 1884.

The expansion of railroads into various parts of the county encouraged coal mining companies to make their first significant investments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thanks in part to an influx of miners, the population of Walker County increased from less than 10,000 in 1880 to nearly 40,000 in 1910.

Where new mines opened, communities formed. Mining companies constructed houses, schools, and churches for their employees. Household essentials were purchased at the company store, often with script issued by the company as a form of payment.

Baseball was a popular pastime in the mining camps. Companies sponsored teams made up of employees and recruited some men to the mines specifically for their athletic ability. Baseball games provided rare moments of relaxation for miners and their families. Mining was difficult and dangerous work. Before mechanization became the norm, miners still blasted coal out with explosives. They shoveled it into carts that were hauled to the surface by mules.

The most famous of Walker County's mining mules was “Ol' Tobe,” one of three mules listed as collateral by H.E. Drummond on a $300 bank loan in the 1930s. The coal company that Drummond established in Sipsey would become a success locally and internationally, and it would pay tribute to its roots by naming two of its draglines "Ol' Tobe."

Indian Head Mill Mine (1900)

A way of life that had existed for decades ended in the 1950s as mines started to shut down. During the decade, Walker County lost 15 percent of its population as families relocated to search for work. Eventually, the mining camps existed only in memory.

Today, Walker County employs 61 of the state's nearly 2,000 miners, according to a 2022 report from the Alabama Department of Labor. Once responsible for roughly one-fourth of Alabama's annual coal production, the county now produces two percent of the state's output.

Though the coal industry is no longer the county's largest employer, its importance is still recognized. In 2011, the Walker County Arts Alliance rolled out a 50-Mule Team Public Art Project inspired by local mining history.

Downtown Sipsey, Alabama (1913)

The children and grandchildren of retired miners are now more likely to be employed by the county's burgeoning automotive industry than they are to be third or fourth-generation coal miners. However, those who come to work each day by exiting onto Industrial Parkway from Interstate 22 will pass a gateway sign depicting three coal miners eternally standing guard over a load of coal.

In a county forged by the coal industry's rise and fall, the tale of its coal-rich legacy still stands strong, showcasing its enduring importance and the enduring spirit of its people. 78