The Clearfield Coalfield is a

bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...

mining area in

Clearfield County, Pennsylvania Clearfield County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 80,562. The county seat is Clearfield, and the largest city is DuBois. The county was created in 1804 and later organized in 1822. ...

, United States. The coal seams are found in most parts of Clearfield County, with the notable exception of the northern part of the county.

Mining history

The entrance of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

's extension from Tyrone, northwest to Philipsburg and Clearfield opened much of the field to coal mining. Later the

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

(NYC) built the

Beech Creek Railroad The Beech Creek Railroad is a defunct railroad which operated in central Pennsylvania between Jersey Shore and Mahaffey. Originally chartered in 1882, it was leased by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (later the New York Central Ra ...

from

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

up Beech Creek and entered Clearfield from the northeast. This line bypassed Clearfield and extended south to

Mahaffey Mahaffey is a surname of Scottish people, Scottish origin, and is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic name ''Mac Dhuibhshithe''. It is a sept of Clan Macfie in Scotland, but the clan originated in Ireland. There the name is found largely in County Doneg ...

and eventually into

Indiana County Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mi ...

. Other rail lines included the

Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad The Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway was one of the more than ten thousand railroad companies founded in North America. It lasted much longer than most, serving communities from the shore of Lake Ontario to the center of western Penns ...

's extension down Anderson Creek to Clearfield, NYC's extension to Clearfield and down the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

to Keating, and the Bell's Gap Railroad, which ran through the southern part of the county through Mahaffey. Each railroad opened numerous coal company towns such as Surveyor, Croft, Karthaus and Bald Hill on NYC's Susquehanna River line. Numerous other towns were built such as Gaazam, Glen Richey, Peale, Winburne ( Summerville), Hawk Run, Morrisdale and Irvona. The active mining of these fields has been greatly reduced since the 1970s. Some coal is obtained via

strip-mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

for the power plant at Shawville and other private enterprises. There were no active underground mines in Clearfield County as of 2007. {{coord missing, Pennsylvania Coal mining regions in the United States Geography of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania Mining in Pennsylvania