Eilley Bowers

Alison "Eilley" Oram Bowers (September 6, 1826 – October 27, 1903) was a Scottish American woman who was, in her time, one of the richest women in the United States, and owner of the Bowers Mansion, one of the largest houses in the western United States. A farmer's daughter, Bowers married as a teenager, and her husband converted to Mormonism before the couple immigrated to the United States. After briefly living in Nauvoo, Illinois, she became an early Nevada pioneer, farmer and miner, and was made a millionaire by the Comstock Lode mining boom. Married and divorced two times, she married a third time and became a mother of three children but outlived them all.
Following the deaths of her first 2 children in infancy then her husband, with the third child dying a few short years after, and with the collapse of the Nevada mining economy, Eilley Bowers became bankrupt and destitute. Eilley reinvented herself as "The Famous Washoe Seeress", a professional scryer and fortune-teller in Nevada and California. Worth over $4 million at the height of the Nevada mining boom, she died penniless in a care home in Oakland, California.
Early life.
Alison Oram (sometimes spelled "Orrum"), commonly called Eilley, was born on September 6, 1826, in Forfar, Scotland. Her only brother John was born in 1821, and it appears that her father's work forced them to move frequently. John was born in Dunfermline and at some point during their childhood, they moved eighty miles southwest of Forfar to Clackmannan. It was here that she married Stephen Hunter in the Church of Scotland at the age of fifteen. Stephen soon met some Mormon missionaries and became a believer. He was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and agreed to immigrate to America. Eilley never converted but traveled with her husband. They sailed for America on January 29, 1849. By the time the Hunters reached Salt Lake City, the strain on their marriage was evident. After eight years of marriage, Bowers and Stephen separated in early 1850.
Remarriage and settlement in Nevada.
In 1853, Bowers married farmer Alexander Cowan. Two years later the couple joined a mission to Mormon Station, near the western edge of Utah Territory. They brought with them Alexander's 12-year-old nephew who had recently been orphaned by the death of Alexander's sister. The following year, the mission relocated to Washoe Valley in a settlement they named Franktown. The Cowans purchased of land for $100 (approximately $ today). The existing ranch contained a dwelling house and coral. They stayed for two seasons.
During the crisis of the Utah War in 1857, Brigham Young recalled Mormon colonists from the western areas of the proposed State of Deseret to the core area of Mormon settlement south of the Great Salt Lake. Alexander heeded the call, leaving his wife and son in Western Utah. With Alexander gone, Bowers and Robert left the abandoned settlement of Franktown for a small mining camp called Johntown in Gold Canyon near present-day Virginia City, Nevada. Bowers opened a boardinghouse and began taking care of the miners. When the threat of war passed, Alexander returned to Western Utah and settled in Johntown, but he did not wish to pursue the life of a Washoe miner. In the fall of 1858 he returned to Salt Lake City where he remained a prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bowers and Robert remained in Johntown.
Gold Hill and the Comstock Lode.
As prospectors began entering the area in large numbers, they soon settled in a new town they named Gold Hill. Bowers opened a new boardinghouse, but she was also buying and selling mining claims. At this time she was also known to engage in fortune-telling using a traditional Scottish "peep stone" she had brought from Forfar. Henry de Groot recorded that on his arrival in August 1859:
Lemuel Sanford (Sandy) Bowers was one of the town's new arrivals. Sandy was a Missouri muleskinner (teamster), born in Madison County, Illinois on February 24, 1833. Sandy owned many mining claims, but his most productive was a ten-foot strip being part of the Little Gold Hill Mines. James Rogers owned the adjoining ten-foot strip which he sold to Bowers for $100.
On August 9, 1859, Eilley and Sandy joined their mining claims and lives when they were married in Gold Hill. In order to settle the land in Washoe Valley, Bowers officially divorced Alexander Cowan on June 4, 1860. As a settlement, she received half of the 320-acre farm they had owned in the Washoe Valley.
As the area boomed following the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the Bowers claim proved to hold one of the richest seams of silver ore in what would become Nevada, and because their claim was close to the surface, it was easily extracted without initial capital investment. The Bowers Mining Company quickly made Eilley and Sandy very wealthy.
European tour and the Bowers Mansion.
On June 28, 1860 Eilley Bowers gave birth to a son, John Jasper Bowers, who died on August 27, 1860. On June 16, 1861 she gave birth to a daughter, Theresa Fortunatas Bowers, who died on September 17, 1861. With money to be had, the couple began to plan a grand mansion on the old Cowan Ranch in Washoe Valley. While the house was being built, the couple traveled through Europe to explore the old county and purchase furniture for the new house.
Shortly before their departure, the couple hosted a banquet at the International Hotel in Virginia City, to which the entire town was invited, and which included free champagne. After traveling to California, the Bowers sailed from San Francisco for England on May 2, 1862, aboard the steamer "Golden Gate". The couple visited Eilley's family in Scotland and traveled through Europe while purchasing large quantities of furniture.
The couple returned to Nevada in March 1863, accompanied by a baby girl, named Margaret Persia Bowers. The Bowers never divulged where they had acquired the child. Some contemporary sources claimed she was born on their European crossing to an unwed mother who died during childbirth.
The Bowers Mansion was one of the most expensive buildings built in the western United States at the time. Designed by J. Neely Johnson, the former Governor of California, The two-story dressed granite stone mansion consisted of 16 rooms constructed with Jeffery Pine and Douglas fir. The main floor included a library, guest room, reception room, formal parlor and adjoining smoking room, dining room, and kitchen. Four hand-crafted carrara marble fireplaces warmed the downstairs room. A plaster of Paris frieze border decorated the ceilings, moldings and medallions above the chandeliers. The main entrance hall opened to a turned mahogany handrail and balcony, which led to the upstairs where Eilley, Sandy, and Persia each had a suite of rooms including a bedroom and sitting room. Expensive toys and fancy dolls filled Persia's playroom. The extra upstairs room housed a hand-sculptured billiard table used for the enjoyment and entertainment of their guests. Kerosene lanterns and candles lighted the beautiful mansion that was truly unlike any other in the West.
Economic hardship.
The rich silver of the Comstock Lode began to play out in 1863 resulting in a deepening depression throughout 1864. Sandy moved back to Gold Hill to help save the mine. With health failing, he attempted to sell or lease most of the Bowers mining operation in the spring of 1868. At the age of 35, Sandy died of Lung Disease on April 21, 1868 at his Gold Hill residence. He was buried on the hill behind his Mansion.
In 1873, Virginia City recovered with a new strike bringing wealth back to the region. Eilley Bowers opened the Bowers Mansion to the public as a resort. The grounds were advertised as being beneficial to health, while dances and social events were held in the mansion. Bowers improved the mansion and grounds by adding a dance hall and offering the upstairs suits for family use. With the extension of the railroad which now connected Virginia City to the young town of Reno and the Trans Continental Railroad, Bowers Mansion became a prime destination for grand excursions. Eilley spent many weekends hosting extravagant picnics. The guests bathed in the fishponds, swung under the trees, waltzed on the dance floor and generally just had a fine old time. For the next few years, Bowers Mansion was filled with music and laughter.
Meanwhile, Persia Bowers was sent to live with friends in Reno allowing her to go to school and learn music. On July 14, 1874 Persia died of what may have been a ruptured appendix. She was buried behind the mansion with her father.
The resort brought in some money, but Bowers was still in debt. The Bowers Mine was sold to pay off creditors, and she entered into negotiations with the newly created State of Nevada for the state to purchase the mansion as a psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately for Bowers, the deal fell through, and she was obliged to begin to sell her possessions to settle debts.
Bowers made one final attempt to save the mansion when she hired construction crews and began renovating the mansion. This time she changed the entire structure by adding a third floor. The $8,000 expansion included 14 rooms including 10 over the main house and two over each wing. However, this only increased her debt.
In April 1876, the District Court of Washoe County finally ruled against Bowers and in favor of her creditors in the sum of $13,622.17.Nevada State Journal April 9, 1876 (3:2)On May 3, 1876, at 1:00 p.m. the courts auctioned off the remaindered of her properties in front of the Washoe county Courthouse. Eight years after Sandy's death, Eilley lost everything to the founder of Reno, Myron C. Lake for $10,000.
Seeress of Washoe.
Bankrupt and with no remaining family in the United States, Bowers set herself up as a fortune-teller using her peep stone, billing herself as "Mrs L. S. Bowers, The Famous Washoe Seeress". She enjoyed some success with her predictions, successfully predicting, among other things, the fire which destroyed much of Virginia City in 1875. Due to the continued economic decline in northern Nevada following the collapse of the mining industry, in the 1880s she moved to San Francisco, where she continued to practice as a scryer.
Destitution.
In the late 19th century, Bowers returned to Nevada. Her hearing had diminished significantly, and she was forced to give up the scrying business as she was unable to hear the requests of her clients. She launched a claim against the government asking for financial assistance in return for the $14,000 she and Sandy Bowers had donated to support the Union cause in the Civil War and to finance the 1860 Paiute War, but was ignored. Destitute, she was placed in the Washoe County poorhouse, and became the subject of a protracted legal dispute between the governments of Nevada and California over who was to pay for her care. In August 1901 it was agreed that California would take responsibility for her welfare, and she was summarily put on a San Francisco-bound train by Reno officials with $30 cash. For the last two years of her life she lived at the King's Daughters Home in Oakland, dying on October 27, 1903. Her ashes were returned to Nevada and buried alongside Sandy and Margaret at the Bowers Mansion.
Legacy.
Eilley Bowers continues to be one of the most famous of 19th-century female pioneers, and a major figure in the early history of Nevada. In one writer's words, she "is one of the most researched, written and talked about women in Nevada history."
Following its sale at auction following foreclosure, the Bowers Mansion was abandoned. Eventually purchased by Reno saloon owner Henry Riter, it was renovated and reopened as a resort in 1903. The hot springs were remodeled to feed warm swimming pools, and a spur was built from the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to serve the property. It continued to operate as a resort until 1946. It is now considered the finest example of the mansion houses built by the millionaire beneficiaries of the Comstock boom, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is administered by the Washoe County Parks Department.


Wesdome Gold Mines

Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. is a mining, exploration and development company based in Toronto, Ontario, focused primarily on gold.
History.
Wesdome Gold Mines Inc. was created as a joint venture in 1976 for the purpose of exploring and developing the Wesdome property in Val d'Or, Quebec, Canada. Wesdome derives its name from the joint venture between Western Quebec Mines Inc. and Dome Mines Ltd.
In 1997 Western Quebec Mines bought out Dome Mines' interest.
In 1999 Wesdome Gold Mines Inc. became a publicly listed company. Wesdome Gold Mines proceeded with its advanced exploration and development on the wholly owned property.
In December 2003, Western Quebec Mines Inc. purchased the Kiena Complex and subsequently put the property into Wesdome Gold Mines Inc., completing and consolidating the Wesdome land package around Lac De Montigny. Wesdome Gold Mines' Val d'Or assets include 7,500 hectares of wholly owned property on the Kiena, Wesdome, Shawkey and Siscoe properties, as well as a 920-metre shaft, 2000 tpd CIP mill and extensive surface and underground infrastructure.
On February 1, 2006, River Gold Mines Ltd. merged with Wesdome Gold Mines Inc., to create Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (WDO-TSX). River Gold Mines Ltd. was formed in 1994 to consolidate ownership of the Eagle River property, located 50  km west of Wawa, Ontario. In the low gold price environment from 1997 to 2002, all other known gold deposits and mining infrastructure in the Mishibishu greenstone belt were acquired. To date, the Wawa assets have produced in excess of 1,000,000 ounces of gold from three mining projects. Wesdome Gold Mines' Wawa assets include 5200+ hectares of wholly owned property on the Eagle River and Mishi properties, a 580-metre shaft, a 1000 tpd Merril Crowe milling facility, and over 75 kilometres of underground development.
On July 10, 2007, Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. merged with Western Quebec Mines Inc. In doing so, Wesdome added 1000 contiguous hectares to its already large Val d'Or land package, removed the controlling shareholder and simplified its corporate structure.
In January 2017 Wesdome reported a new gold discovery at its Eagle River Mine in Ontario. Underground drilling intercepted multiple high-gold intercepts including 7.08 g/t Au uncut over 8.88 metres and 28.72 g/t Au uncut over 20.67 metres.
Environmental Issues.
On February 22, 2016, Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. was convicted of discharging tailings into Mirion Creek between January 1, 2012 and May 7, 2013. These discharges were not reported to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) and were revealed by a joint investigation by the MOECC and Environment Canada. Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. has now been placed on the MOECC's Environmental Offenders Registry.
In 2016 Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. applied to the MOECC to use a water body adjacent to their Eagle River Milling Complex to deposit tailings waste in. The tailings will be coming from the Mishi open-pit mine, the Edwards mine and the Eagle River Milling Complex. These are existing operations which will be expanding their production.
Finance.
Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. trades on the TSX Exchange under the symbol "WDO" and has 102.0 million shares outstanding.
Exploration.
Wesdome reported in April 2017 it had extended the 300W Zone by 250 metres at its Eagle River mine, with highlighted intercepts including 21.2 g/t gold over 2.17 metres and 28.59 g/t gold over 2.11 metres. Surface drilling at its Mishi mine also confirmed extensions of mineralization west of the existing open pit, with intercepts including 1.95 g/t gold over 29.8 metres and 3.42 g/t gold over 7.3 metres.


Woodhouse Colliery

Woodhouse Colliery is a proposed coal mine near to Whitehaven in Cumbria, England. The proposal is for the first deep coal mine in England since Asfordby pit in 1987. The coal mine has been advertised as bringing jobs to a deprived area but has also come in for criticism by green campaigners. In 2019, Cumbria County Council granted the planning permission for the venture.
It is not to be confused with the former Woodhouse Close Colliery in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, which operated between 1835 and 1934.
History.
In June 2014, West Cumbria Mining announced its intention to invest £14.7 million in a venture to explore for premium quality coking coal underneath the sea off Whitehaven. The project had started before as a plan to find and gasify the coal for energy use, but when the quality of the coal was discovered, it precipitated a shift into mining the coal for steelmaking. It is intended to use the coal only for coking rather than for the electricity supply industry (ESI). The fall in the price of ESI coal in the world markets also precipitated the closure of mines using coal only for ESI. If approved, the mine would be Englands' first deep coal mine since the Asfordby pit was sunk in 1987.
The inferred resources suggest that the mine could produce over of coal per year from across a section underneath the Irish Sea. Backers of the scheme point out that Britain imports of coke per year, of which none is sourced in Europe, with most being from Australia and the USA.
The mine would use former but extant tunnels from previous mining ventures for coal and anhydrite. The mine head would be located on the former Marchon chemical works site close to Haig Colliery and the suburb of Woodhouse just south of Whitehaven town centre in Cumbria. The proposal would be to mine the carboniferous coal seam up to a maximum depth of .
In 2017, a geological team were working offshore from St Bees Head drilling into the rock below the sea bed to a depth of . This will determine the quality of the coal and check for any geological conditions that could affect the planning of the mine.
The mine is expected to have a life of 50 years and employ 500 workers with the possibility the area contains over of coal in its reserves. 80% of the output from the mine has been promised to be railed out of the area to Redcar Bulk Terminal on Teesside for export. A conveyor would move the coal from the site to a loader away. Trains would number up to six per day including Saturdays, though the company acknowledge that the increase in traffic on the railway would require signalling improvements on the Cumbrian Coast Line. Additionally, West Cumbria Mining have applied to install a solar farm on the estate that would cover and provide 40% of the electricity needs of the mining operation.
West Cumbria Mining is owned by EMR Capital, a company based in Australia that has injected over £20 million into the venture by June 2017. A further £200 million was projected to be spent in final testing, acquisition of rights and the implementation of the mine. The facility itself is expected to cost in the region of £165 million.
The prospect of England's first new coal mine in over 30 years has prompted anger in parts of the local community with an action group (38 Degrees) starting up with the slogan "Keep Cumbrian coal in the hole". The protesters have pointed out that the underground workings would extend to within of the nuclear ponds at Sellafield and they also cite the proximity of the mine to a proposed new nuclear facility at Moorside. Another concern is that of the prevalence of methane in the Cumbrian Coalfield. The protest group have pointed out that the dangerous levels of gas made the region an ideal test-bed for the Davy Lamp in 1816.
Approvals and appeals.
In March 2019, a meeting of Cumbria County Council's planning committee voted unanimously in favour of the project citing "the desperate need for jobs, particularly in deprived wards close to the proposed new mine". Green campaigners announced that they would launch a legal challenge. A spokesperson for South Lakes Action on Climate Change, said that the mine would "totally undermine Cumbria's chances of hitting emission targets".
In November 2019, the government decided not to intervene in the appeals process and stated the "...[Cumbria County] Council should take the decision". Work on the site is expected to start in 2020, with coaling operations starting in 2022.


George Clementson Greenwell

George Clementson Greenwell (25 July 1821 – 6 November 1900) was a British mining engineer.
Career.
George Clementson Greenwell was born on 25 July 1821 in Newcastle upon Tyne.
He was educated at Darlington Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Percy Street Academy, Newcastle, and went on to the University of Edinburgh.
Greenwell joined the mining industry, and from 1838 to 1842 was apprenticed to Mr Thomas Emerson Forster at Haswell Colliery, From 1843 he worked for Thomas John Taylor of Earsdon until 1845 when he became Viewer at "Black Boy" and "West Auckland" collieries. He moved in 1848 to "Marley Hill" and in 1854 to manage mines at Radstock in Somerset and from 1863 at Poynton and Worth in Cheshire. In 1876 he moved back to the North East of England to Tynemouth (and later on to Duffield) and practised as a consulting engineer.
In 1852 Greenwell was one of the founders of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, initially sitting on the first council, and from 1875 as Vice-President and from 1879-1881 as President. He became an honorary member of the Institute in 1889.
He was also an active member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and a member (and thrice President) of the Manchester Geological Society.
George Clementson Greenwell died on 6 November 1900.
Publications.
Greewell many published papers included


Placer Dome

Placer Dome Inc. was a large mining company specializing in gold and other precious metals, with corporate headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
In August 2005, the company had interests in 16 gold mining operations in 7 countries; it had a market capitalization of $6.7 billion USD (on June 30, 2005). For the year 2004, it had sales of $1,888 million, net earnings of $284 million, and cash from operations of US$376 million.
The company was purchased by Barrick Gold in 2006, and was assimilated into Barrick.
History.
Placer Dome was formed in Vancouver in 1987, by amalgamating Placer Development Ltd. of Vancouver (founded in British Columbia in 1926), Dome Mines Ltd. of Toronto (founded in Ontario in 1910), and Campbell Red Lake Mines Ltd. of Toronto (founded in Ontario in 1944).
Placer Dome operated the Detour Lake gold mine before selling the property in 1988 while it was being decommissioned. Placer Dome acquired several mining companies over its lifetime: Kiena Gold Mines Ltd. in 1988 (0.92 shares of Placer Dome Inc. for each share of Kiena Gold Mines Ltd.), Sigma Gold Mines Ltd. in 1988 (0.97 shares of Placer Dome Inc. for each share of Sigma Gold Mines Ltd.), Placer Pacific Ltd. in 1997 (0.066 shares of Placer Dome Inc. for each share of Placer Pacific Ltd. held), Getchell Gold Corporation in 1999 (2.45 shares of Placer Dome Inc. for each common share of Getchell Gold Corporation held), AurionGold Ltd. in 2003 (17.5 shares of Placer Dome Inc. for every 100 AurionGold shares, plus US$0.28 per AurionGold share), and East African Gold Mines Ltd. in 2003 ($252.4 million in cash).
In 2002 the first 3.6 tonne, 17 kW, hydrogen-powered hydrail mining locomotive for Placer Dome was demonstrated in Val-d'Or, Quebec.
Operations.
In August 2005 Placer Dome had interests in 16 mining operations in seven countries: Campbell, Musselwhite, and Porcupine in Canada; Golden Sunlight, Turquoise Ridge, Cortez, and Bald Mountain in the United States; Zaldívar and La Coipa in Chile; North Mara in Tanzania; South Deep in South Africa; Porgera in Papua New Guinea; and Osborne, Henty, Kalgoorlie, and Granny Smith in Australia.
In New South Wales Australia, Placer Dome obtained ownership of the defunct Timbarra Gold Mine, where it achieved some local acclaim for setting new, higher State standards for mining rehabilitation.
Controversy.
Placer Dome (and now Barrick) are defendants in an ongoing court battle over the highly controversial Marcopper mining disaster, which took place at the Marcopper Mine (run by Marcopper, a Placer Dome subsidiary) on the island of Marinduque, Philippines.
Takeover.
Barrick Gold acquired 100% of Placer Dome shares on January 20, 2006, and integrated the company into its own. Once Barrick gained over 90% of the company shares it could force people to sell their shares to gain the 100% which it required. March 8, 2006 was the final day for trading of Placer Dome's common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.


David Tod

David Tod (February 21, 1805 – November 13, 1868) was an American politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Ohio. As the 25th Governor of Ohio, Tod gained recognition for his forceful and energetic leadership during the American Civil War.
A Democrat who supported the war effort, Tod helped to maintain a fragile alliance between the state's Republicans and War Democrats and took steps to secure Ohio's borders. In 1863, the state's pro-Union party failed to nominate Tod for a second term because of his tepid support for the abolition of slavery and his unpopularity among the state's myriad political factions.
After completing his two-year term as Ohio governor, Tod turned down an invitation to serve in the government of President Abraham Lincoln as Secretary of the Treasury, citing poor health. Tod died of a stroke in 1868, three years after the end of the war and was interred in Oak Hill Cemetery (Youngstown, Ohio).
Early life.
Tod was born in Youngstown, Ohio, to a family actively involved in local and state politics. His father, George Tod, born to a Scottish immigrant in Suffield, Connecticut, had relocated to the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1800. There, George Tod pursued a career in public life, serving as an Ohio lawmaker between 1804 and 1806, and winning a seat as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court in 1807.
David Tod attended Burton Academy in Geauga County and studied law in Warren, where he was appointed postmaster. Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1827, he accumulated considerable wealth as a lawyer actively involved in the coal and iron industries of the Mahoning Valley, and he went on to become president of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad.
Early political career.
Tod was in the Ohio State Senate from 1838 to 1840. He was a candidate for Ohio's governorship as a Democrat in 1844 and 1846, running on a strongly anti-national bank platform, but lost both elections. He was appointed by President James K. Polk as minister (ambassador) to Brazil from 1847 to 1851. He presided over the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore after the resignation of Caleb Cushing as convention president.
Although previously a strong Democrat, Tod joined the pro-Union alliance between the Republican Party and Ohio's War Democrats at the outset of the Civil War. On September 5, 1861, Republicans and War Democrats met in Columbus, Ohio, to form the National Union Party. The newly established party promptly abandoned the state's beleaguered Republican governor, William Dennison, and threw its support behind Toda move designed to strengthen solidarity between War Democrats and Republicans.
Meanwhile, the War Democrats who had not joined the National Union Party nominated Hugh J. Jewett, who called for reconciliation with the South but "stopped short of taking a strong antiwar stance". Tod won the election, polling 206,997 votes to Jewett's 151,774—a result that indicated the National Union Party had made few inroads among Democratic voters. Tod ultimately served one term as governor, leading the state from 1862 to 1864.
Civil War governor.
Governor Tod faced significant difficulties in encouraging military recruitment and providing for Ohio troops in the field, but gained the nickname "the soldier's friend". As historian George W. Knepper observed, the governor was compelled, near the outset of his administration, to "deal with the highly emotional aftermath of the battle of Shiloh", a costly victory in which Ohio alone suffered 2,000 casualties. Several months later, when Confederate troops under the leadership of Stonewall Jackson threatened Washington, D.C., Tod was able to secure 5,000 volunteers to provide three months of service. He was less successful, however, in filling Ohio's federally mandated quota of 74,000 troops. In time, he advocated federal conscription, writing to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, "With this Ohio will... respond to any further calls made upon her, but without it would be impossible to raise any considerable number". Among those Ohioans who participated in the war effort was Tod's nephew, Brigadier General James Hobart Ford, who served in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the War.
States could use their own tax money to supplement the work of the United States Sanitary Commission as Ohio did. Under the energetic leadership of Governor Tod, Ohio acted vigorously. Following the unexpected carnage at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee in April 1862, it send 3 steamboats to the scene as floating hospitals loaded with doctors, nurses and medical supplies. The state fleet expanded to eleven hospital ships. The state also set up 12 local offices in main transportation nodes across the Midwest to assist Ohio soldiers moving back and forth.
Tod was challenged to maintain the state's security during the war, calling out the militia to respond to a cavalry raid by Confederate Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan from July 12 to 26, 1863, and arranging for the compensation of Ohioans whose property had been confiscated by Morgan's men. Damages inflicted upon Ohio residents reached $576,225, "while the expense of keeping the militia in the field raised the total cost to well over a million dollars". At the same time, as historian Richard H. Abbott observed, Tod also "battled with recalcitrant Democrats, unruly newspaper editors, draft rioters, and strange secret societies". He was compelled to call out troops to bring an end to draft riots in Holmes County, which became popularly known as the "Battle of Fort Fizzle".
He recommended the federal military arrest of Copperhead leaders such as Dr. Edson B. Olds—who sued him for kidnapping and actually had the governor briefly arrested, before the Supreme Court of Ohio issued a writ of habeas corpus–and Clement Vallandigham. In 1862, he attended the Loyal War Governors' Conference in Altoona, Pennsylvania, which ultimately backed Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Union war effort. At the same time, Tod resisted the idea of using black troops in the war effort. When black abolitionist leader John Mercer Langston urged the governor to enlist African-American soldiers to help the state fill its draft quotas, Tod responded sharply, saying, "Do you not know, Mr. Langston, that this is a white man's government; that white men are able to defend and protect it?" Nevertheless, by 1863, blacks were being enrolled in Ohio's volunteer units, and more than 5,000 served in state or federal units.
Later years.
Tod was unable to secure the pro-Union renomination in 1863, losing it to another War Democrat, John Brough, who enjoyed greater popularity among Ohioans and more actively supported the anti-slavery direction the Northern war effort had by then taken. President Abraham Lincoln then offered Tod the post of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, telling an aide, "He is my friend, with a big head full of brains... he made a good governor, and has made a fortune for himself". Tod, knowing he was not radical enough for Republicans in the United States Senate and in fragile health, declined the appointment. Tod died of a stroke in 1868, at the age of 63, leaving a widow and seven children. He was a Republican Presidential elector in 1868 for Grant/Colfax. He died before the meeting of electors, and was replaced by G. V. Dorsey.
Since his death, Tod has gained recognition as an effective political leader who guided his state through a difficult period. As Delmer J. Trester wrote: "His administration was characterized by intense patriotism, devotion to duty, administrative ability, and unflagging energy. Ohio was fortunate to have David Tod as one of its war governors".
Tod is honored with a full-size bronze depiction inside the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Cleveland, Ohio for his service as governor during the Civil War.


Bela Stena mine

The Bela Stena mine is one of the largest magnesite mines in Serbia. The mine is located in Bela Stena in Raška District. The mine has reserves amounting to 4 million tonnes of ore grading 44% magnesite and 1.5% silica thus resulting 1.76 million tonnes of magnesite and 60,000 tonnes of silica.


Ambrosia Lake

Ambrosia Lake is a uranium mining district in McKinley and Cibola counties in New Mexico north of Grants that was heavily mined for uranium starting in the 1950s. It is in an anticlinal dome.
History.
Kerr-McGee first learned about rich uranium deposits in the area in 1955. It ran a free assay service and some prospectors had sent in samples that the company found to be high in uranium. Kerr-McGee sent an agent to buy the property. This agent instead double crossed the company and bought the site for himself. Various parties (including United Western Minerals Corporation of General Patrick Jay Hurley) rushed into the area to get sections of property. However Kerr-McGee wound up owning most of Ambrosia Lake.
Kerr-McGee then allied with Anderson Development Corp., and Pacific Uranium Mines to form the Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corporation. They built a mill there. When Kerr-McGee Nuclear split into Quivira Mining and Sequoyah Fuels subsidiaries in 1983, Quivira got the Ambrosia Lake property. When Quivira was sold to Rio Algom in 1989, Rio got the mine and mill. Rio was later bought by Billiton which later became BHP Billiton.
Cleanup.
By 1982, approximately of radioactive tailings were left from almost 25 years of uranium extraction. Wind and rain spread the material over an area of . Between 1987 and 1995, the Department of Energy remediated the site, encasing of contaminated material in a disposal cell. While the DOE/UMTRA site is closed and inactive, the former Kermac mill (under BHP ownership) continues with reclamation activities towards final closure in 2021. Other cleanups at mine and mill sites in the area fall under the EPA's jurisdiction.


W. M. Keck Earth Science and Mineral Engineering Museum


Berggeschrey

Berggeschrey or Berggeschrei ("mining clamour") was a German term for the rapid spread of news on the discovery of rich ore deposits that led to the rapid establishment of a mining region, as in the silver rush in the early days of silver ore mining in the Ore Mountains. It is similar in some respects to the gold rush in North America.
First Berggeschrey.
Even as the first settlements were established there were small finds tin, iron and copper.
But when, in 1168, rich silver finds were discovered in the area of Freiberg, it precipitated the "First Berggeschrey". Upon hearing the news of rich silver deposits miners, traders, charcoal burners and vagabonds quickly poured into this, at that time, inhospitable area. "Where a man wants to look for ore, he is allowed to do so with rights" the Margrave of Meissen, owner of the rights to use the mountain (mining rights), had asserted to the settlers flooding into the area. In order to settle the miners, who mostly came from the Harz Mountains, they were exempt from the feudal obligations to their landlords and so were able to devote themselves entirely to their work. However they had to pay a direct tax in the form of a mining tithe ("Bergzehnt") to their local lords.
Second or Great Berggeschrey.
Over the course of the centuries, the search for ore extended to the crests of the Ore Mountains. In 1470, three hundred years after the First Berggeschrey, rich silver ore deposits were discovered in Schneeberg and in 1491/92 on the Schreckenberg in present-day Annaberg-Buchholz. This news resulted in the "Second Berggeschrey", which was also known as the "Great Berggeschrey". Feverish mining activity and the associated influx of people from other regions spread to the whole Ore Mountains. By the end of the 15th century it was much more densely populated than hitherto. It was at that time that the mining towns of Jáchymov (Sankt Joachimsthal), Annaberg, Buchholz, Schneeberg and Marienberg emerged.
"Third Berggeschrei".
In the post-war years from 1946 onwards, almost eight hundred years after the First Berggeschrey, activity comparable to the gold rush broke out again in the Ore Mountains as a result of uranium ore mining by the SDAG Wismut. This is nicknamed the "Drittes Bergeschrei" ("Third Bergeschrei"), using the modern German spelling of the word "Bergeschrey". As a result of the rapid and reckless boom the population grew sharply in several places ("see e. g. Johanngeorgenstadt"). Especially in the early days of the Wismut mining operation considerable damage was done to the environment, historic village centres and infrastructure (e.g. spa house and facilities of the internationally renowned Schlema radium spa) were destroyed and there were serious health problems amongst the Wismut miners at the time.
Apart from silver and uranium, tin, iron, copper, arsenic, lead, cobalt, nickel, bismuth ("Wismut"), tungsten and zinc were mined in the Ore Mountains.
Post German-reunification.
After the political Wende mining operations by SDAG Wismut were shut down completely after 1990. It had been the largest employer and the most important economic factor in the region. Today, the pits of the lime works in the Lengefeld village of Kalkwerk represent the last working mine using mineshafts in the state of Saxony on the northern side of the Ore Mountains. The whole Ore Mountain Mining Region ("Montanregion Erzgebirge") with its above-ground mining facilities, show mines, technical monuments, mining education paths and the traditions of local people are witnesses to these three key epochs in mining history.


Lisa Raitt

Lisa Sarah MacCormack Raitt (born May 7, 1968) is a Canadian former politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2017 to 2019. She was the Conservative Party deputy leader, and was the Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Milton from 2015 to 2019, having previously represented Halton from 2008 to 2015. She is a professional administrator (1999–2008) turned politician (2008–2019). Raitt served in several portfolios as a minister in the 28th Canadian Ministry of Stephen Harper.
Background.
Raitt was born Lisa Sarah MacCormack in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and raised as the youngest of seven children. It was not until her early teens that she learned that the couple she thought were her parents were actually her grandparents, and that the woman she believed was her sister was her mother, who as a young unmarried woman had almost given up her daughter for adoption. Her grandfather, Colin A. MacCormack, worked for a local coal mine, loading coal onto ships, and later served as city alderman, and secretary-treasurer and a lead negotiator for the Cape Breton Railway Transportation and General Workers. Her grandmother, Mary Christina "Tootsie" (Gillis), was a businesswoman. As a child, she participated in Girl Guides of Canada programs as a youth member. Raitt was married to Second City alumnus, playwright, and stay-at-home dad David Raitt and has two sons, John Colin (b. 2001) and Billy (b. 2004); they are now divorced. On September 2, 2016, she married her longtime partner, Bruce Wood, the President and CEO of the Hamilton Port Authority.
Raitt graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia with a Bachelor of Science. She went on to do a master's degree in chemistry, specializing in environmental biochemical toxicology, at the University of Guelph. Raitt possesses an LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School, and was called to the Ontario bar in 1998. That year, she was granted a Dr. Harold G. Fox Scholarship. As a result, she trained with barristers of the Middle Temple in London, United Kingdom, which specialized in international trade, commerce, transportation, and arbitration.
Toronto Port Authority (1999–2008).
Raitt served as the TPA's Corporate Secretary and General Counsel, and harbourmaster from April 2001. She was the first female harbourmaster of a Canadian port. In 2002, Raitt was appointed as president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Port Authority (TPA), a Canadian federal corporation that manages the Toronto Harbour as well as the Toronto City Centre Airport.
See relinquished the post of harbourmaster to Angus Armstrong in 2004.
General Counsel.
As General Counsel for the TPA, she filed a $1 billion lawsuit over of land that was transferred in the 1990s to the City of Toronto's Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO) by the Toronto Harbour Commission (THC). The disputed lands, mostly the infill lands of the Don River delta, constituted around 85% of the THC's land assets as of the early 1990s. The lands had been transferred in two separate agreements, in 1991 and 1994 in exchange for a permanent subsidy for the THC. The TPA's legal claim was that the transfer had been done while the majority of directors of the THC were City-appointed, and who had acted in the city's interest and not in the commission's fiduciary interest, and that the deals crippled the THC's ability to be self-sufficient by ending any potential revenues from those lands. Since the TPA was inheriting the role and activities of the THC, it was thus crippled itself. The TPA and the City settled out of court in exchange for a promised bridge to the Island Airport across the Western Gap and approximately $50 million. The bridge was never built; instead a pedestrian tunnel under the Western Gap was constructed and completed on July 30, 2015.
CEO.
As CEO of the TPA, Raitt was responsible for building the International Marine Passenger Terminal, a Toronto home for the now-defunct Canadian American Transportation Systems, a Rochester, New York-based group. The ground was broken on 24 August 2004, and CATS operated for six months in 2005. The Rochester firm that initially owned the ferry had a 14-year lease on the use of the terminal that would have paid the City of Toronto $250,000 per year.
 The terminal was reported to have cost $10.5 million to construct, which makes a 0.33 cost recovery factor. The lease was terminated in December 2009 after payment of a $90,000 settlement. The terminal has seen little use since then except to dock cruise ships and as a movie set.
During her time as CEO of the TPA, the Air Canada "Jazz" service to the Toronto City Centre Airport was discontinued under a legal cloud.
Raitt was responsible for the new "TCCA1" ferry for passengers at the Toronto City Centre Airport, which is located at the western end of the Toronto Islands.
Raitt was quoted as "proud to have assisted in the remarkable growth of Porter Airlines" in her time at the TPA.
Mismanagement allegations.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow called on Sheila Fraser, the federal auditor general, to conduct an audit of the port authority to investigate why Baird increased the membership of the board of directors from seven to nine - and why Raitt, while CEO of the authority, was allowed to run up almost $80,000 in travel and other expenses over two years. A November 2009 report by the "Toronto Star" claimed that Raitt signed off on her own expenses inappropriately, but the TPA claimed the Star's report was inaccurate. This followed another story in the Toronto Star that a TPA employee used the office computer to send emails about a Conservative fundraiser event. After an independent forensic review conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Toronto Port Authority released the results on September 14, 2010. These results showed that "all but one of the 15 complaints lodged by the former Directors were groundless".
Federal politics.
In September 2008, Raitt was appointed to run as the Conservative candidate in Halton against Liberal incumbent Garth Turner.
Turner was formerly a Conservative MP but he was suspended from the Conservative caucus in 2006 for breaching confidentiality. He later joined the Liberals after briefly sitting as an independent member. Raitt defeated Turner in the October 14, 2008, election.
Minister of Natural Resources.
Raitt was appointed to the Cabinet of Canada on October 30, 2008, as Minister of Natural Resources. She was one of eleven women named to the Cabinet.
At an October 6, 2009, meeting of the Oakville, Ontario, Chamber of Commerce, Raitt was on record discussing the possibilities of increased tourism and shipping opportunities in the North due to the melting polar ice cap.
Jasmine MacDonnell incident.
On June 2, 2009, CTV News reported that a folder of confidential and secret ministerial briefing documents had been left by Raitt or her staff at the CTV News Ottawa office for a week. CTV News chose to reveal the contents which listed the funding for the Chalk River nuclear reactor which had recently shut down, causing a shortage of medical radioisotopes. There was also an audio tape, made on January 30, 2009, with Raitt and the aide.
On June 3, the opposition parties demanded that the government fire Raitt or accept her resignation. Raitt claimed to have offered her resignation and that the offer was rejected by the Prime Minister. A ministerial aide, Raitt's 26-year-old director of communications, Jasmine MacDonnell, offered her resignation which was accepted.
On June 8, 2009, CBC news online reported that a Nova Scotia court heard an argument to block the "Halifax Chronicle-Herald" from publishing a story about an audio recording involving Raitt. The judge ruled that the public interest over-rode the issue of confidentiality. On the tape, Raitt made comments on the radio isotope issue, describing it as "sexy ... Radioactive leaks. Cancer." and hard to control because it is "confusing to a lot of people". Raitt also made comments on the parliamentary skills of Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Manitoba MP Joy Smith, who introduced a private member's bill on human trafficking:
Minister of Labour.
On January 19, 2010, Raitt was moved from the Ministry of Natural Resources to the Ministry of Labour. Prime Minister Harper publicly defended Raitt, saying she has "a great future."
The Ottawa Citizen and National Post reported Raitt's appearance at Lester B. Pearson Airport on March 22, 2012, and subsequent reaction by Air Canada baggage handlers was the reason a wildcat strike occurred the next day. According to Bill Trbovich, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), Raitt was walking through the airport when three workers started "clapping and saying ‘Oh, great job’. Raitt is alleged to have asked the RCMP to ‘arrest these animals’. The strike caused widespread disruption to Air Canada schedule, causing flight cancellations and delays. Raitt's office denied the allegation.
In 2011, Raitt used back to work legislation twice to end strikes by Air Canada's flight attendants and by employees of Canada Post. The following year she threatened to legislate workers with the Canadian Pacific Railway back to work on the first day of their strike. On each occasion she cited the country's fragile economy as the reason for using back to work legislation.
When Raitt was shuffled out of the Labour portfolio she received praise from both opposition critics and union leaders for her work as minister. Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner described Raitt as "tough, quick, funny and hard-working — she can give as good as she gets." Phil Benson of the Teamsters union said "she had an open door policy with us, was professional, courteous and good to deal with," and that he looked forward to working with her as Transportation Minister.
Minister of Transport.
Raitt was named Minister of Transport on July 15, 2013, nine days after the Lac-Mégantic derailment. She replaced Denis Lebel, MP for Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean who was previously Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. With her promotion to the transportation file she was considered to be one of the most senior women in cabinet, along with Public Works Minister Diane Finley.
Rail safety.
On July 9, 2013, the Ministry of Transport was in full damage control mode owing to the LMD. Two Directors (Marie-France Dagenais and Luc Bourdon), and an Associate Deputy Minister (Gerard McDonald) tried to finesse their delayed reaction to a scathing December 2011 report by the Auditor General of Canada on rail safety. Raitt took over the Ministry on July 15. She issued a directive sometime in autumn 2013 requiring railways to inform municipalities about the kinds of dangerous goods they were carting through their communities, but a spokesman for Canadian National said on 8 January 2014, upon the occurrence of the hazardous derailment (PRD) near Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, that it was too soon for those regulations to have come into effect. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was forced to intervene during a stop in Inuvik on January 8, 2014, and said: "We have made significant investments in rail safety and rail inspections," he said. "We have increased both of those vastly."
Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority.
On July 30, 2014, she appointed Caroline Mulroney, her long-time friend, and three other individuals, including Mark R. McQueen, who was an employer of Mulroney (under the name Lapham) at Wellington Financial and also was a former employee of Brian Mulroney's Prime Minister's office, to the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, a body to oversee a second bridge across the Detroit River that separates Windsor, Ontario from Detroit, Michigan. Tom Mulcair, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, mocked her appointment, as an instance of the kind of corruption her father was suspected of. The "Business News Network" noted: "The Harper government hasn't explained yet what Mulroney Lapham's qualifications are to serve as a director of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority."
Conservative leadership.
Shortly after her promotion to the Ministry of Transport, National Post columnist John Ivison wrote that Raitt was quickly becoming a contender to succeed Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he decided to step down.
The Conservative government was defeated in the 2015 federal election, though Raitt was elected in Milton, essentially the western part of her old riding. In the aftermath of the Conservative defeat, Raitt was one of several names commonly mentioned as a potential leadership candidate. Raitt had said she is "seriously considering" a bid for the party leadership.
On October 14, 2016, Raitt stepped down as finance critic. On November 2, 2016, Raitt announced via Facebook that she was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, though she eventually lost to Andrew Scheer.
After the 2014 Ontario election, Raitt was considered to be a contender to replace Tim Hudak for the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. However, she declined the opportunity due to health issues. In 2018, after Patrick Brown resigned over accusation of sexual assault, Raitt was named as a possible contender for the leadership, but announced on January 27, that she will not seek the leadership. She endorsed Caroline Mulroney and served as her campaign co-chair.
In a June 7, 2019 retweet of Ross McKitrick's "Financial Post" opinion piece defending Roger Pielke Jr. Raitt said that the "Bottom line is there's no solid connection between climate change and the major indicators of extreme weather, despite Trudeau's claims to the contrary. The continual claim of such a link is misinformation employed for political and rhetorical purposes."
Conservative Deputy Leader.
On July 20, 2017, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer named Raitt as deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and Official Opposition. Raitt is the first woman to hold the role for the Conservatives.
When asked about the appointment, she stated she considered herself a feminist and women will 'see themselves' in her.
She was defeated in the 2019 federal election by Adam van Koeverden.
Personal life.
Raitt is married to Bruce Wood. In November 2020, she came out about her experience with her husband's young onset Alzheimer's disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Whitsunday Miners FC

Whitsunday Miners Football Club were an Australian association football club based in Mackay, Queensland. They played in the Queensland State League and were founded in 2008.
History.
Since being founded in 2008, the Whitsunday Miners have played in the Queensland State League, although success hasn't been strong for them, having two shaky seasons since their foundation. In the 2008 QSL competition, The Miners finished 9th out of 10 teams, finishing one point behind Logan United and just above Bundaberg Spirit. In the 2009 season they once more failed to make an impact on a longer season, finishing 10th out of 11, with Bundaberg Spirit finishing below them once more.
In the 2011 QSL season, the Miners have progressed to Round 2 of the QSL Finals after finishing third overall behind Sunshine Coast and Brisbane Strikers. The Whitsunday Miners knocked out Gold Coast Stars in 3–1 win at the new Mackay Stadium and now look to the Far North Queensland Bulls to play for a spot in the final.


Alpha Natural Resources

Alpha Natural Resources is a large American producer of metallurgical coal ("met coal") for the industrial production of steel and iron and low-sulfur thermal coal ("steam coal") to fuel steam boilers for the production of electrical power. In November, 2018 the company was acquired by Contura Energy. The company also provides industry services relating to equipment repairs, road construction and logistics, with domestic operations and coal reserves within the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wyoming, Utah, Illinois, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Alpha Natural Resources does not produce all of the coal it sells; much of the coal sold by Alpha Natural Resources is purchased from independent mining operations and then resold in the worldwide market.
The 2009 takeover of Foundation Coal provided Alpha Natural Resources with the ability to directly access the Cumberland Mine Railroad and to rail transport coal in Pennsylvania.
In 2014, Alpha Natural Resources settled on a $27.5 million fine and $200 million to reduce illegal toxic discharges into hundreds of waterways across five Appalachian states. According to the EPA it was the largest environmental fine ever made against a coal company: "This is the largest one, period. It's the biggest case for permit violations for numbers of violations and size of the penalty, which reflects the seriousness of violations."
Corporate history.
Alpha Natural Resources, Inc.
2002.
Alpha Natural Resources was established in 2002 by management (original CEO Michael Quillen played a major role) and First Reserve Stockholders (though it officially incorporated in November 2004). Around the same time it made its first major acquisition, The Brink's Company's Virginian coal business, for $62.9 million (Virginia is currently a significant source of primary production). Immediately after that it took over Coastal Coal Company (January 2003), followed by American Metals and Coal International's coal business (March) and Mears Enterprises, Inc (November).
Alpha Natural Resources exists today primarily as the result of two mergers, one in July 2009 (Foundation Coal and Alpha Natural Resources, Inc.) and another in January 2011 (US$7.1 billion acquisition of Massey Energy).
2004, IPO.
Alpha Natural Resources filed for an IPO during December 2004 in an attempt to raise US$250 million to repay debt (strong coal prices also affected the timing of this). At the time, coal was selling for about a quarter of the price of natural gas ($1.5 versus $5.0 per million BTU); however, the ratio has since become much smaller (as of 2010, coal has tripled in price to $4.63/mil BTU while gas is still at $5.189). (Natural gas is used as an alternative to thermal coal in electricity production.)
The takeover of Foundation Coal was a reverse takeover, in that Foundation Coal was the company left standing and it was immediately renamed Alpha Natural Resources. Foundation Coal added 7.5 million tons of annual coal shipments to its Eastern Coal operations, and expanded the company's presence in Wyoming. Although acquisitions helped Alpha expand rapidly since its founding in 2002, it also burdened it with debt ($185.6 million in 2004, $754.15 December 31, 2010).
2011, Massey Energy acquisition.
On January 31, 2011 Alpha Natural Resources acquired coal producer Massey Energy for US$7.1 billion, completed in June 2011, creating the second biggest coal miner by market capitalization. The merged company (54% owned by Alpha Natural Resources) would be the leading producer of metallurgical coal in the US and have the second largest reserves of coal (5.1 billion tons). Merging operations with Massey is estimated to reduce combined operating costs by $150 million. 7,000 of the 14,000 employees are in West Virginia. In 2010, demand for thermal coal rose while metallurgical coal demand was flat; it made up only 14% of coal sales, down from 17% in 2009.
Massey Energy had become a takeover target after suffering large income losses and negative publicity following an explosion at West Virginia's Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 employees. Direct costs related to the incident amounted to $128.9 million. Federal regulators and the Mine Safety and Health Administration blamed the explosion on Massey's poor practices; however, the company contested the findings, citing a methane leak.
The corporate takeover of Massey Energy was completed in June 2011 after shareholders of both companies voted for the merger. 99% of Massey shareholders voted for the deal (77% of them voted), while 98% of Alpha's shareholders supported it (83% of them voted). Alpha secured $3.3 billion in financing for the takeover from Citigroup and JPMorgan. The combined entity will be the world's number three producer of metallurgical coal, behind BHP Billiton and Teck Resources.
Alpha Natural Resources settled Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine disaster liabilities with the U.S. Attorney for $209 million on December 6, 2011. The settlement included $41.5 million to the survivors and families of the deceased. The Mine Safety and Health Administration additionally assessed a $10.8 million fine for 369 citations and orders, the largest fine for a mine accident in US history.
2012 election year layoffs.
On September 18, 2012, Alpha announced a plan to idle eight coal mines and to lay off 800 employees before the November 2012 federal elections in the United States. The plan would reduce Alpha's yearly coal production by ~16 million tons and reduce costs by $150 million.
2014, settlement with the EPA.
In 2014, Alpha Natural Resources settled on a $27.5 million fine and $200 million to reduce illegal toxic discharges into hundreds of waterways across five Appalachian states. According to the EPA, it was the largest environmental fine ever made against a coal company: "This is the largest one, period. It's the biggest case for permit violations for numbers of violations and size of the penalty, which reflects the seriousness of violations."
2015, bankruptcy.
The firm suffered four years of losses, laid off 4,000 workers, and closed all but 50 mines. Due to its "abnormally low" stock price, ANR was delisted from the NYSE on July 16, 2015. With debts of $3 billion dating from its acquisition of Massey Energy for $7.1 billion in 2011 the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 3, 2015.
Alpha Natural Resources had used more than $1 billion in "self-bonding" to guarantee it could pay for its mine reclamation obligations under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. After the firm declared bankruptcy, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality agreed to accept $61 million in place of the firm's $411 million in self-bonding liability to the state. In West Virginia, Alpha's bankruptcy plan is to offer $240 million in collateral for its self-bonding liabilities and to continue holding $100 million in liability without collateral. The plan would commit $209 million to reclamation in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Bankruptcy negotiations are complicated by large hedge funds, such as Highbridge Capital Management and Davidson Kempner Capital Management, who own both the company's debt and liens on Alpha's operating cash.
On July 26, 2016, the company successfully emerged from bankruptcy as a privately held company.
Operations.
Only about 40% of coal is produced directly by the company, and 60% comes from subsidiaries. Three-fourths of the company's 60 mines are underground operations. In 2008 the biggest source of coal production, the Powder River Basin (53% = 49.2mt), was home to only 32% of coal reserves (behind U.S. Northern Appalachia (35% = 800mt) and Central Appalachia (32%, thermal coal). After the merger with Massey, the company controlled 150 coal mines and 40 preparation plants, which was up significantly from the 65 mines under its control at the end of 2007. For 2011, Massey expected to ship 10 to 14 million tons of metallurgical coal, about the same as Alpha (in 2010 this was 11.88 million tons or 14% of total production). In its last annual report (2009) Massey Energy reported coal sales of 38 million tons (ranking sixth in the US), compared to 84.8 million tons sold by Alpha Natural Resources in 2010. In the fourth quarter of 2010 Massey Energy had a coal shipment shortfall of 1.4 million tons, half of which was due to rail problems, and the other half a result of misproduction.
Headquarters.
The Alpha Natural Resources-leased corporate office building in Bristol, Virginia was reportedly sold in February 2015 for $28 million to One Alpha Place LLC, registered in Delaware and owned by the publicly traded Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. The deal will apparently have no impact on the building's sole tenant (Alpha Natural Resources, LLC), which at the time had 22 years remaining on a 25-year lease.
Mines.
Before the merger with Massey Energy, Alpha Natural Resources had over 60 active mines in four US states. After the merger the number of mines reached 110-150. Notable ones include Belle Ayr Mine and Eagle Butte Mine (both in Wyoming).
In Coal River East, Kingston Mining, located in Kingston, West Virginia, has some of the world's most sought-after met coal.
Currently, Alpha affiliates operate approximately 60 mines and 22 prep plants.
Black Bear Surface Mines was previously operated, but more recently is one of the company's two land restoration projects. The project was featured on the Discovery Channel.


Walter E. Scott

Walter Edward Perry Scott (September 20, 1872 – January 5, 1954), also known as Death Valley Scotty, was a prospector, performer, and con man who was made famous by his many scams involving gold mining and the iconic mansion in Death Valley, known as Scotty's Castle.
Early years.
Scott was born in Cynthiana in Harrison County in northern Kentucky, to George E. Scott (or George A. Scott according to his IGI record) and wife, the former Anna Calhoun (or Elizabeth Perry according to his IGI record). He spent the early years of his childhood traveling with his family around the harness racing circuit, and at age 11 he left home to join his two brothers at a ranch near Wells, Nevada. In 1884, he made his first visit to Death Valley, as part of a crew surveying the California-Nevada border. At age 16, he joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show as a stunt rider. For the next 12 years, he toured the United States and Europe with the show.
Scott's involvement with the show ended in 1900, when he married Ella Josephine Milius (whom he called "Jack") in New York City. The couple moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado, where Scott unsuccessfully tried to start a gold mining operation. After he was not allowed to rejoin the Wild West Show, he conned a wealthy New York City businessman into backing a fictitious gold mining operation. For two years, he continuously informed his patron about the state of the mine, but he never shipped any ore. After his patron had invested more than $5000 in the mine, Scott boarded a train bound for New York with a bag supposedly containing more than $12,000 in gold dust. After he claimed that the bag had been stolen before he reached his destination, the newspapers eagerly picked up the story, starting Scott on a spree of self-promotion ventures. In 1904, he abandoned his previous patron in favor of Edward A. Shedd and Albert M. Johnson. They poured more than $4000 into his scam over a period of several months, before pulling out of the deal.
In 1905, Scott made another attempt to increase his publicity by claiming that he would break the cross-country train speed record. For $5500, he contracted with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe to provide a special train. On July 9, he left Los Angeles for Chicago in the train, called the "Scott Special", consisting of an engine, a baggage car, a sleeper, and a dining car. The only passengers were Scott and his wife Jack, F. N. Holman, and Charles E. Van Loan, a writer for the Los Angeles Examiner. The trip was completed in 44 hours and 54 minutes, breaking the previous record of just under 53 hours. This stunt once again catapulted Scott to the front pages of newspapers the nation over, and inspired Buffalo Bill Cody to hire an impersonator of Scott for his show.
Throughout 1905 and 1906, Scott continued to attempt to con investors into backing his "mining" endeavors, and was largely successful, using many ruses to evade the investigators that his potential backers sent to check on the state of his mines. On March 11, 1906 a play about Scott opened in Seattle to standing-room only, with Scott playing the leading role. When the play finished, Scott was arrested on assorted charges for his involvement in fooling investigators earlier that year. The charges were dismissed on a technicality, but the trial had made clear that Scott was a fraud. However, he refused to admit anything and somehow managed to keep Albert Johnson interested in his "mine". Another investigator was sent, who reported back that the mine did not exist. The following year, after Johnson hadn't seen any gold from the supposed mine, he decided to visit the mine himself. He left empty-handed. Several years later, he formed a lifelong friendship with Scott.
Around this time, Scott began fencing high-grade ore that he had stolen from mines in the area. As a front for his stolen-ore operation he leased a mine in the Humboldt Mountains. In 1912, he returned to Death Valley and announced that he had sold his mine for $12 million. After he made this claim, he was sued by his creditors for old debts, and ended up in jail.
Later years.
In 1915, Scott moved to Twentynine Palms, California, where he lived quietly until Johnson decided to visit him. Johnson eventually forgave Scott for his fraudulent scheming, and the two became friends. Johnson soon purchased the Staininger Ranch in Grapevine Canyon for his own use, and in 1929, prior to the stock market crash, began developing the property of what later became Lower Vine Ranch, approximately five miles away. Although Johnson had originally installed quarters for Scotty at Grapevine, he also built a roomy five-room cabin for Scott at Lower Vine as well as several outbuildings and a corral for Scott's beloved mules. Johnson also used the land at Lower Vine for a short while to farm alfalfa so he could legally claim the property for himself under the Homesteading Act. Scott immediately returned to his old ways of spreading unbelievable tales about his mine, which Johnson did nothing to discourage, regarding it as merely amusement.
Scotty's Castle.
In 1922, construction began at the Staininger Ranch on what was to be the new Johnson vacation home. As people saw the scale of the project, speculation was rampant that Scott did have a mine after all. Scott claimed that he had built the castle for himself, and it became known as "Scotty's Castle", despite the fact that the name over the front door read "Death Valley Ranch". Scott himself rarely stayed in the castle proper, staying mainly at his cabin in Lower Vine Ranch, and putting in appearances at the castle to entertain dinner guests with his stories.
In 1931, it was learned that because of a surveying error, Johnson did not actually own the land on which the castle was being built. The problem was rectified in 1935, but at that point, it was too late for construction to finish, as Johnson's insurance company had gone into bankruptcy two years earlier. Johnson willed Death Valley Ranch to a religious organization, with the provision that Scotty could live there as long as he wished. Scotty's Castle was never completed, but Scotty lived there until his death in 1954. He is interred above the castle.
Scott's family.
Scott's wife and child, Walter Perry Scott, who was born in 1914, remained separated from Scott for the most part. The Johnsons were charitable, and made several efforts to financially assist Jack and Scott's son, who were not receiving any money from Scott himself. The Johnsons took young Walter Perry into their home for a period of several years and even considered adopting the child. When that idea did not pan out, Johnson bought Jack a house in Reno, Nevada, and began paying her a monthly sum that varied between $100 and $150 to help support her child. The Johnsons eventually provided the funds for Walter Perry to attend a military academy. Walter Perry Scott joined the navy, and Jack moved to Long Beach, California. Johnson continued sending money to Jack throughout her life, although the sum was necessarily reduced after the stock market crash of 1929 to only $50.
In 1937, after years of living in poverty on the meager sum provided by Johnson and any money she could acquire through menial jobs, Jack brought Scott to court demanding $1,000 per month to support herself and her son, and a share of whatever interests Scott held in Scotty's Castle and the gold mine Jack still believed he had. The lawsuit failed because Scotty did not have any legal interests in mining or the castle, and certainly did not have the funds to pay her $1,000 per month. Jack then immediately turned her suit against Johnson himself, accusing him of manipulating her husband and hiding his finances so as to thwart her. Johnson, of course, had no legal obligation to pay Jack any money at all, nor to give her a share in any of his property, so Jack's lawsuit again failed. Johnson took pity on her, however, and raised the monthly amount he gave her to $75.
Television depiction.
Scott is the subject of the 1955 episode, "Death Valley Scotty," on the syndicated television anthology series "Death Valley Days", hosted by Stanley Andrews. The actor Jack Lomas (1911-1959) played Scotty, who in 1905 commissioned the "Scott Special," a passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The steam locomotive Santa Fe No. 1010 was used to re-create the record-setting 44-hour railroad run from Los Angeles to Chicago and was reconditioned especially for filming. William Schallert was cast Albert Mussey Johnson, Scotty's millionaire benefactor.


Jackson Mine

The Jackson Mine is an open pit iron mine in Negaunee, Michigan, extracting resources from the Marquette Iron Range. The first iron mine in the Lake Superior region, Jackson Mine was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The Lake Superior Mining Institute said, the mine "is attractive in the iron ore region of Michigan and the entire Lake Superior region, because of the fact it was here that the first discovery of iron ore was made, here the first mining was done, and from its ore the first iron was manufactured." Multiple other mines soon followed the Jackson's lead, establishing the foundation of the economy of the entire region. The mine is located northwest of intersection of Business M-28 and Cornish Town Road.
Origins of the Jackson Mine (1844–1847).
In 1844, government surveyor Douglass Houghton tasked his deputy, William A. Burt, with leading a party into Michigan's Upper Peninsula to carry out a full survey of the land. On September 19, 1844, Burt noted odd compass fluctuations while surveying in the area of Teal Lake (near present-day Negaunee, Michigan). He asked his men to investigate, and they discovered rock outcroppings that proved to contain iron ore, later known as the Marquette Iron Range. Although the local Ojibwe people (Chippewa) and earlier Native Americans certainly knew of these ore deposits, Burt and Houghton noted the find in their reports, and were the first to publish this discovery to the world at large.
In June 1845, businessmen organized the Jackson Mining Company in Jackson, Michigan, with Abram V. Berry as president and Philo M. Everett as treasurer. The company was interested in starting a copper mine in the Upper Peninsula; it secured a lease for that purpose and sent a prospecting party, led by Everett, to the Upper Peninsula. Arriving in Sault Ste Marie, they met French Canadian Louis Nolan, who knew of Burt's discovery the year before. While not secret, the find was not generally known. Everett expressed interest in the iron, and Nolan guided the party to the mouth of the Carp River (the location of present-day Marquette) and on to Teal Lake, but was unable to find the correct location. The party continued onward to Copper Harbor, where they fell in with Chippewa chief Marji-Gesick, who was familiar with the Teal Lake area. Marji-Gesick guided the party to the right area and showed Everett iron ore in the roots of a fallen tree. The Jackson Mine was developed here. The stump of this tree was preserved for its historical importance until it burned in 1900, even so the tree was symbolically included in the seal of the city of Negaunee. Everett registered a claim to the site and had samples of the ore assayed; the ore proved to be of high quality, specifically hematite with a small percentage of manganese and chromium. The Jackson Mining Company switched its focus from copper to iron.
In 1846, the company sent an expedition to the site to further explore the area and obtain more ore to test. Forging the ore proved a success, and in the winter of 1846–1847, the Jackson Mining Company gathered equipment at the mine. In 1847, the company organized men and machinery and began taking ore out of the mine. It began constructing the Carp River Forge, which was finished the next year. The first pieces of ore from the mine were forged at the Carp River and sold to construct a steamer.
Rise of the Jackson Iron Company (1848–1870s).
In 1848, the Jackson Mining Company was re-incorporated with Fairchild Farrand as president; Berry and Everett and most of the rest of the original investors lost control of the company. In 1849, the company got a new president, Ezra Jones, and a new name: the Jackson Iron Company. In 1850, after numerous problems, the company gave up operation of their forge on the Carp River and leased the forge out. The company was in a precarious financial position, and ceased work for a time on both their forge and mining operations. However, production at the mine soon resumed, although company operations at the forge did not. Jackson began utilising the Marquette forge; however, they did ship some iron ore directly: the first shipment of five tons went to New Castle, Pennsylvania. The purity of this ore shipment attracted attention, and General Joel B. Curtis, president of the Sharon Iron Company of Sharon, Pennsylvania, travelled to Michigan to inspect the mine. Liking what he saw, he purchased a controlling interest in the Jackson Iron Company, and for some years the Jackson location was known as the "Sharon."
With Curtis's guidance, the company began shipping more ore; in 1852, 70 tons were shipped to Sharon Iron. However, shipping ore was still problematic, and in 1857 the Jackson Mine began building a furnace on their property. The slow increase in mining and then furnace construction brought an influx of workers, and a town grew up around the mine and furnace site. In 1857, the town was incorporated as "Negaunee," coming from an Ojibwa phrase meaning "I take the lead," or more loosely, "pioneer."
However, the Jackson Mine was indifferently run, with frequent changes in management, and for some years a "record of disappointments and financial embarrassment." In 1861, the management stabilized, and with the greater demand for iron during the Civil War, the Jackson Iron Company declared its first dividend in 1862. The Jackson Mine ramped up its production, peaking in the late 1860s and early 1870s, with 1871 the year of maximum production. The company established an iron furnace at Fayette in 1867, and by 1875 had produced over 1.5 million tons of iron ore.
Decline and closure (1870s–present).
After the 1870s, ore prices declined. Even so, by 1900, Jackson Mine had produced over 3.6 million tons of iron ore. However, the Jackson Iron Company was suffering financially, with meager profits due to the declining prices and the irregularity of its deposits. In 1904 the Jackson Mine produced no ore. The mine got a reprieve in 1905, when the Jackson Iron Company was purchased by the Cleveland-Cliffs Company. But, mine yields were still weak, and the Jackson produced no ore in 1908 and 1916. The Jackson Mine closed permanently in 1924, having produced over 4 million tons of ore since its opening in 1856.
By the time it closed, the Jackson Mine contained several working pits, as well as trial shafts, a forge, cross-cuts and drifts; some of the underground workings were close to the surface. In the 1950s, the Jackson Mine and portions of the surrounding town of Negaunee were closed due to fears of collapse from undermining. In recognition of the historical significance of the Jackson as the area's first iron mine, the site was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1956 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The mine and area around it were acquired by the city of Negaunee in 2003 and the danger from undermining re-evaluated. In 2006, much of "West Old Town Negaunee" and areas around the mine itself were re-opened to the public. The city developed a trail system through the area. The overgrown ruins of the early Jackson Mine pit mines can be seen from the trail system.
Jackson Park.
South of the Jackson Mine site is Jackson Park. This recreational area is located next to Business M-28 (County Road) southwest of downtown Negaunee. The park has a pair of tennis courts and four horseshoe courts. Before subsidence from mining activities, the park was in size and offered campsites to visitors.


Forest of Dean Coalfield

The Forest of Dean Coalfield, underlying the Forest of Dean, in west Gloucestershire, is one of the smaller coalfields in the British Isles, although intensive mining during the 19th and 20th centuries has had enormous influence on the landscape, history, culture, and economy of the area.
For hundreds of years, mining in the Forest of Dean Coalfield has been regulated through a system of freemining, in which individuals who qualify are granted leases to mine specified areas, known as "gales". The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 exempted the Forest of Dean because of its unique form of ownership and history, allowing the unique privilege to continue intact.
The last of the big gales closed in 1965 and today only a handful of small collieries are still operating.
Geology and hydrology.
The Forest of Dean Coalfield formed during Upper Carboniferous times, when the area was a nearshore-intertidal environment of semi-marine estuaries and swamps. The area today is a raised basin plateau of Paleozoic rocks folded in the Variscan Orogeny. It occurs in a raised asymmetrical syncline with a steeper eastern limb that surfaces in the area of Staple Edge and the Soudley Valley producing the steeply dipping strata. An unusual feature of the Forest of Dean Coalfield is that its edges are almost entirely exposed at the surface.
Mining in the coalfield has always been hampered by the excessive amount of water encountered underground - trapped by the basin-shaped strata. Water drains into the basin by general percolation and, more directly, via surface watercourses. For much of their length, streams in the area run over impervious clay deposits, but, where valleys cut through the rim of the basin, carboniferous limestone and sandstone are exposed, allowing water to penetrate underground via swallow holes, cracks, and fissures. Water also enters the basin through geological faults.
In an attempt to reduce the pumping requirement, many mine owners 'waterproofed' the beds of watercourses with conduits or channels, wherever water loss was thought likely to occur. These artificial drainage features can be seen, at some point or other, on almost every watercourse within the mining area.
Freemining.
For hundreds of years, mining in the Forest of Dean Coalfield has been regulated through a system of freemining; where individuals, if they qualify, can lease a specified area in which to mine. Freeminers were instrumental in recapturing Berwick upon Tweed several times (1296, 1305, and 1315) and it is thought that freemining rights were granted by Edward I as a reward for their endeavours. The "Free Miner's Mine Law Court" sat at the Speech House from 1682 and the earliest known existing copy of "Dean Miners' Laws and Privilege's, known locally as the "Book of Dennis", dates from 1610, but the copy contains references to much earlier origins.
Towards the end of the 18th century, as the Industrial Revolution took hold, increasing demand for coal and iron led to conflicting mining interests and the court became bogged down with disputes. Deep coal and iron reserves could not be mined without substantial investment and the Crown became determined to introduce the free market into the Forest. The Mine Law Court was outlawed in 1777 and all its documents were confiscated by Crown Officials.
A Royal Commission was appointed in 1831 to inquire into the nature of the mineral interests and freemining customs in the Forest of Dean, leading to the passing of the Dean Forest Mines Act 1838, which forms the basis of freemining law. It confirmed the freeminers' exclusive right to the minerals of the Forest of Dean, but also allowed freeminers to sell their gales to a non-freeminers; further opening up the Forest to outside industrialists.
As of 2010 the gender requirement has been recognised as archaic, and women are allowed to become freeminers.
Exploitation of the coalfield.
Coal mining, on a small scale, began before Roman times. The small mines were widespread but as iron mining was of greater importance, mining coal was possibly a by-product. Edward Terringham, a Gentleman of the Bedchamber in the court of Charles I was granted a monopoly to mine coal in the Forest, infringing the rights of freeminers and leading to widespread and sometimes violent confrontation. To improve production and enable year-round working, Terringham built a drainage sough and brought in labour from Staffordshire. He abandoned the lease to Sir John Winter for an annuity in 1640. Disafforestation took place but Winter was deprived of his rights during the Protectorate and after the Restoration gave up the lease. At this time the coal, which amounted to about 25,000 tons in 1680, was shipped out of the area via the River Wye.
The coalfield was not exploited to any great degree until the Industrial Revolution, when coke-fired ironworks were built in the Forest. Initially, it proved impossible to produce coke from local coal that was ideal for smelting which was a major factor in the failure of three early furnaces within a decade of them opening. Around 1820 Moses Teague, whilst borrowing the cupola furnace at Darkhill Ironworks, discovered a way to make good iron from local coke, greatly advancing the iron and coal industries of the Forest of Dean.
By the mid-19th century, there were more than 300 gales or coal workings and it was said there were more men working below ground than there were working above.
The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act, of 1946 exempted the Forest of Dean, due to its unique form of ownership and history, allowing freemining privileges to continue intact. Some large colliery gales were subsequently compulsorily purchased by the National Coal Board (NCB), but remained under the freemining system and a royalty was paid to the freeminers by the NCB as a share of the minerals extracted.
In 1945 half the male population of the Forest were employed in coal mining. The last of the NCB gales closed in 1965, but freemining continues to be an important aspect of Forest of Dean culture and there are probably still around 150 freeminers, although only a handful of collieries are still operating.
Collieries.
The collieries or gales, most of which were small, were given "imaginative" somewhat unusual names, such as "Strip and At It", "Gentleman Colliers" or "Rain Proof". They took coal from seams or delfs named Rocky, Lowery, and Starkey. Child labour was used extensively underground to drag loads of coal up to 1842 when it was made illegal.
In 1904 some gales were amalgamated into seven groups in order to mine on a larger scale from deeper seams and the output reached one million tons annually. Output declined after World War II and the last big pit closed in 1965 and the area was subject to opencast working. Coal is still mined on a very small scale.
References.
Footnotes
Bibliography


Dick Hellings

Richard Hellings (1 December 1874 – 9 February 1938) was an English-born Welsh rugby union forward who played international rugby for Wales and club rugby for Llwynypia. Hellings was noted for his strength built from years cutting coal as a Rhondda miner. Hellings later played rugby for Cardiff, Exeter and Devon.
Rugby career.
Tiverton born, Hellings moved to the Rhondda while a young boy and later found work as a coal miner in Llwynypia, there Hellings joined local rugby team Llwynypia RFC. In the late 1890s an ageing and failing Welsh pack forced the selectors to look for options outside the likes of Newport and Cardiff. This saw the emergence of the 'Rhondda forward', manual workers chosen from the villages and towns of the south Wales valleys. In 1897 Hellings was chosen to face England as part of the 1897 Home Nations Championship along with fellow Rhondda players, Jack Rhapps and Dai Evans. Under the captaincy of legendary Welsh player Arthur Gould Wales beat England by a goal and two tries to nil.
Hellings was reselected for both matches of the 1898 Home Nations Championship, this time under the captaincy of Billy Bancroft. Wales won the first game against Ireland, but lost to England at Blackheath. Hellings missed the opening game of the 1889 Championship in which fellow Llwynypia player, Willie Llewellyn scored four tries on his Wales on his debut; but played in the final two games. The 1900 Championship saw Wales win the Triple Crown for the second time by winning all three games. Hellings played in two of the victories, but his more notable match was the opening game against England. Played at Kingsholm, England played 13 new caps, a record that stood until 1947. Hellings scored his one and only international try during the game, made all the more memorable as Hellings had fractured his arm in the game before scoring.
Hellings final two games for Wales game in 1901. There were hopes that Wales would retain the Triple Crown, but although beating England in the first game, the selectors felt the forwards, of which Hellings was given the role of leading, lacked cohesion in the tight. When Wales lost the next game to Scotland, Hellings was dropped and never represented Wales again.
International matches played.
Wales


Dumri, Giridih (community development block)

Dumri (, ) is a community development block (CD block) that forms an administrative division in the Dumri sub-division of the Giridih district in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
Overview.
Giridih is a plateau region. The western portion of the district is part of a larger central plateau. The rest of the district is a lower plateau, a flat table land with an elevation of about 1,300 feet. At the edges, the ghats drop to about 700 feet. The Pareshnath Hills or Shikharji rises to a height of 4,480 feet in the south-eastern part of the district. The district is thickly forested. Amongst the natural resources, it has coal and mica. Inaugurating the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana in 2016, Raghubar Das, Chief Minister of Jharkhand, had indicated that there were 23 lakh BPL families in Jharkhand. There was a plan to bring the BPL proportion in the total population down to 35%.
Maoist activities.
Jharkhand is one of the states affected by Maoist activities. , Giridih was one of the 14 highly affected districts in the state., Giridih was identified as one of the 13 focus areas by the state police to check Maoist activities. In 2017, the Moists, in Giridih district, have torched more than 50 vehicles engaged in road construction or carrying goods.
Geography.
Dumri is located at .
Dumri CD block is bounded by Sariya, Birni and Giridih CD blocks on the north, Pirtand CD block on the east, Nawadih CD block, in Bokaro district, on the south and Bagodar CD block on the west.
Dumri CD block has an area of 430.58 km2. It has 37 gram panchayats, 181 inhabited villages and 2 census towns. Dumri and Nimiyaghat police stations serve this block. Headquarters of this CD block is at Dumri. 4.48% of the area has forest cover.
The Jamunia River runs near the Grand Trunk Road from around Bagodar to past Dumri and then turns south, forms the border between Dhanbad and Bokaro districts and joins the Damodar.
Gram panchayats in Dumri CD block are: Sasarkho, Nagabad, Khudisar, Jitkundi, Jaridih, Barki Bergi, Behra Suiadih, Parsabeda, Atki, Chhachhando, Chainpur, Kalhawawar, Chengro, Chino, Kulgo (N), Kulgo (S), Dumri, Amra, Bharkhar, Tengra Khurd, Asurbadh, Dumarchutio, Madh Gopali, JamRtara, Isri Bazar (N), Isri Bazar (S), Ranga Matti, Laxmantunda, Kheratunda, Roshnatunda, Balutunda, Lohedih, Nagri, Poraiya, Balthariya, Shankardih and Thakurchak.
Demographics.
According to the 2011 Census of India Dumri CD block had a total population of 226,006, of which 210,002 were rural and 16,004 were urban. There were 116,397 (52%) males and 109,609 (48%) females. Population in the age range 0–6 years was 40,281. Scheduled Castes numbered 23,045 (10.20%) and Scheduled Tribes numbered 23,547 (10.42%).
Census towns in Dumri CD block are (2011 census population figure in brackets): Isri (9,749) and Jamtara (6,255).
Literacy.
 census the total number of literate persons in Dumri CD block was 118,024 (63.55% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 74,181 (67.68% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 43,483 (48.66% of the female population over 6 years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 19.02%.
 census, literacy in Giridih district was 63.14% Literacy in Jharkhand was 66.41% in 2011. Literacy in India in 2011 was 74.04%.
See also – List of Jharkhand districts ranked by literacy rate
Language and religion.
In 2001, Khortha was the mother-tongue of 988,198 persons in Giridih district, forming 51.89% of the population, followed by Hindi with 392,263 persons (20.60%), Urdu with 309,960 persons (11.24%) and others with 309,960 persons (16.28%) with no information.
Hindi is the official language in Jharkhand and Urdu has been declared as an additional official language.
In 2011, Hindus numbered 1,856,202, forming 75.90% of the population of Giridih district followed by Muslims with 508,586 persons (20.80%), Christians with 14,645 persons (0.60%) and other religions/ religion not stated with 66,041 (2.70%).
Rural poverty.
40-50% of the population of Giridih district were in the BPL category in 2004–2005, being in the same category as Godda, Koderma and Hazaribagh districts. Rural poverty in Jharkhand declined from 66% in 1993–94 to 46% in 2004–05. In 2011, it has come down to 39.1%.
Economy.
Livelihood.
In Dumri CD block in 2011, amongst the class of total workers, cultivators numbered 23,113 and formed 24.43%, agricultural labourers numbered 45,113 and formed 47.69%, household industry workers numbered 2,164 and formed 2.29% and other workers numbered 24,203 and formed 25.59%. Total workers numbered 94,593 and formed 41.85% of the total population, and non-workers numbered 131,493 and formed 58.15% of the population.
Infrastructure.
There are 181 inhabited villages in Dumri CD block. In 2011, 117 villages had power supply. 4 villages had tap water (treated/ untreated), 176 villages had well water (covered/ uncovered), 163 villages had hand pumps, and all villages had drinking water facility. 23 villages had post offices, 13 villages had a sub post office, 12 villages had telephones (land lines) and 98 villages had mobile phone coverage. 178 villages had pucca (paved) village roads, 30 villages had bus service (public/ private), 30 villages had autos/ modified autos, and 46 villages had tractors. 20 villages had bank branches, 6 villages had agricultural credit societies, 1 village had cinema/ video hall, 3 villages had public library and public reading room. 68 villages had public distribution system, 20 villages had weekly haat (market) and 98 villages had assembly polling stations.
Agriculture.
Hills occupy a large portion of Giridih district. The soil is generally rocky and sandy and that helps jungles and bushes to grow. The forest area, forming a large portion of total area, in the district is evenly distributed all over. Some areas near the rivers have alluvial soil. In Dumri CD block, the percentage of cultivable area to total area is 22.87%. The percentage of cultivable area to the total area for the district, as a whole, is 27.04%. Irrigation is inadequate. The percentage of irrigated area to cultivable area in Dumri CD block is 8.98%. May to October is the Kharif season, followed by the Rabi season. Rice, sown in 50% of the gross sown area, is the main crop in the district. Other important crops grown are: maize, wheat, sugar cane, pulses and vegetables.
Coal mining.
Coal is mined in Dumri CD block.
Backward Regions Grant Fund.
Giridih district is listed as a backward region and receives financial support from the Backward Regions Grant Fund. The fund created by the Government of India is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. As of 2012, 272 districts across the country were listed under this scheme. The list includes 21 districts of Jharkhand.
Transport.
The Asansol-Gaya section, a part of the Grand Chord, Howrah-Gaya-Delhi line and Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line, passes through this block. Parasnath railway station and Nimiaghat railway station are on this line.
NH 19 (old numbering NH 2)/ Grand Trunk Road passes through this CD block.
Education.
Dumri CD block had 30 villages with pre-primary schools, 165 villages with primary schools, 91 villages with middle schools, 12 villages with secondary schools, 5 villages with senior secondary schools, 1 general degree college, 15 villages with no educational facility.
Healthcare.
Dumri CD block had 1 village with community health centre, 1 village with primary health centre, 12 villages with primary health subcentres, 4 villages with maternity and child welfare centres, 5 villages with allopathic hospitals, 6 villages with dispensaries, 4 villages with family welfare centres, 26 villages with medicine shops.