Preston #3 (Folkton) Colliery
The Preston No. 3 Colliery was located just west of the Girardville borough line along the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad main line and south of Mahanoy Creek.
The original opening was a drift driven west on the North Dip Mammoth Vein by Buckley, Moody & Co. in 1857. In 1862, the company had driven 1300 feet of gangway, when
it was succeeded by John Jones & Co. which operated until 1864.
On March 16, 1864, the Preston Coal & Improvement Co. was chartered. Its officers and directors were: Henry D. Moore, president; George J. Forest, vice president; H.P. Rutter, secretary and treasurer; Henry D. Moore
William G. Moorhead, William Hunter Jr., and J. Hicks Conrad, directors.
The Preston Coal & Improvement Co. leased the colliery to Buckley, Moody & Co. which drove a watere-level tunnel 170 feet south
to the North Dip Holmes Vein, and 450 feet of gangway west.
In 1871 William Kendrick & Co. leased the colliery and sunk a slope 100 feet to the water-level gangway, extending it 275 feet to the first level. That company mined to 1872.
In 1872, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. came in possession of the colliery through the purchase of the lands of the Preston Coal & Improvement Co. and it sank the tender slope to the same level as the
hoisting slope. The P&R C&I spent $200,000 on improvements and developments, driving a tunnel 300 feet south from the first
level to the South Dip Mammoth Vein in 1873. In 1878, it extended it across the basin 570 feet to the North Dip Mammoth Vein,
which was mined eastward 3,000 feet to its boundary and westward to where it connected with the Preston No. 4 Colliery workings.
The Preston No.4 Colliery (Hunters Tunnel) was consolidated with Preston No 3, in 1876.
In 1889, the hoisting and tender slopes were extended 270 feet to the second level a total length of 645 feet.
In 1891, from the second level, 350 feet west of the slope a tunnel was driven 1,200 feet south through the basin and saddle to the North Dip
Mammoth Vein, intersecting the Buck Mountain Vein.
In 1897, the Mammoth Vein gangways reached their boundaries and in 1902, the colliery was abandoned as it was exhausted.
The total shipment of coal from Prestion No. 3 and Preston No. 4 colliers was 1,367,046 tons.
***Excerpts from article by Frank Blase, Historian (Update since I first compiled this work from Mr. Blase's writings he has sinced passes away, what a loss)
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