Ear: Coal

A morsel from The Daily Morning Astorian, Nov. 22, 1889: “A large lump of coal, as big as one’s head from the Nehalem River, attracts considerable attention at this office. When the road is completed to these coal deposits, we will no longer be dependent on Puget Sound and Australia for our supply, but will have plenty to use and some to sell.”

Not quite. The 1955 publication, “Coal Resources of Oregon” says coal has been found in Clatsop and Tillamook counties, but most of it is low-grade sub-bituminous coal.

Coal beds found on the upper Nehalem River were mostly shale. On the lower Nehalem, “no bed thicker than 22 inches has been reported,” the report says. “Little is known about the coal deposits in any of these areas, because the exposures and prospecting have not revealed coal that is promising enough to encourage commercial development.”

“Coal was mined in southwest Oregon from the mid-19th century until the 1920s,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. “ … Today, there are no active commercial coal mines in Oregon.”