This colliery was opened
by a slope sunk 285 ft.to the first level of the mammoth vein by Michael Maize
and William Lewis in 1869. The first shipment of coal was 11,486 tons in 1870.
They operated the colliery until 1874, when it was purchased by the Philadelphia
& Reading Coal & Iron Co. who sunk a new lift and also a shaft to a
large body of flat coal east of the slope and later sunk the slope on the buck
mountain.
In 1877, they extended the
buck mountain slope to a new lift.
In 1881, they erected an
18 ft.fan to ventilate the West Shenandoah and Turkey Run Collieries by forcing
air down an airway on the mammoth vein previously driven from the centennial
slope. By this airway the gas and smoke from the mine locomotive in the turkey
run tunnel was cleared.
In 1891, the hoisting slope
on the buck mountain vein was extended 510 ft. below the third level.
In 1900, the Kohinoor and
Turkey Run Collieries were consolidated with West Shenandoah Colliery. A large
breaker was built to prepare the coal mined from all three collieries.
In 1903, a new tender slope
was sunk to the fourth level for use of men and supplies and steam and column
pipe.
In 1907, the haulage tunnel
connecting West Shenandoah and Turkey Run Collieries was started and completed
in 1908, the total length was 3222 ft.
In 1909, the breaker and
headframe of the main hoisting slope was lighted by electricity.
In 1912, they extended the rock slope to the sixth level and installed an electric hoist on the slope and sixth level. The colliery was one of the largest producers for the p&r c&i co. The West Shenandoah colliery was shutdown nov.10,1938 and the total shipments from the colliery as of 1925 was 15,359,653 tons including Kohinoor and Turkey Run from 1902.