1/10/2004
James Kinney Farmstead main house longwall mining damage pictures.

Diary Entry:

Kurt was here early in 3 degree weather - reducing tension to the cables. There were two loud "THUMPS" during the night - at about 2:30 AM and at 7:00 AM there was a house shaking crash. Did not find anything but I suppose that a rock deep in the earth below the house fell into a cavity left by the longwall mining. The "THUMPS" were from plaster falling from the ceiling in a downstairs room which resulted in it landing on the false ceiling. I took more pictures. This time 2 rolls of 35mm color in the house and 12 outside, also with the digital camera of the State Highway 147 which is badly cracked on the turn east of the barn. Three of these cracks go completely across the road and are wide, up to 4 inches! Five other cracks are associated with this area which was the south edge of the 900 foot panel. This is not a big traffic hazard unless they widen more but they are on a sharp turn of the road. With the snow cover and ice storms we are having and the fact that many travelers go too fast on this old "drovers' trail" it could be a hazard unless the Ohio State Highway Department does not get some patching done. The possible hazard would be that someone could hit these deformed pieces of pavement and spin across the road into oncoming traffic. I observed the milk house from the outside and saw that it has damage to cement blocks on all three sides now. I checked the pendulums in the barn and found that they were mostly back to the "start" position - just a little to the north. Found a possible reason for the "thumps" last night. The SW upstairs bedroom had more ceiling plaster loss above the window which was directly above the ceiling loss in the room below (office). Found some broken bricks on the house, summer kitchen is same inside and out.

Floyd Simpson