Northern Panhandle Field

From West Virginia (WV) Cyclopedia

The Northern Panhandle Field is the name used to describe a coal producing section of West Virginia that includes the following counties, in whole or it part: Ohio, Brooke, Hancock, and Marshall counties.

The mining of coal began in about 1800 in the Northern Panhandle field to supply the needs of the early iron and pottery operations established along the Ohio River near Wheeling, WV during that period. Early records of shipment of coal outside these local markets are virtually nonexistant, apparently not beginning on any scale until after the arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (http://www.wvrailroads.net/index.php/Baltimore_%26_Ohio_Railroad) (B&O) to Wheeling in 1853.