Banning No. 3 Mine (ca.1903-1919), (ca.1950-  ?  )
Located on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad, across the Youghiogheny River from Jacobs Creek, just down river from Van Meter, Rostraver Twp., Westmoreland Co., PA
[After ca.1910 the adjacent Darr Mine was renamed and became another entry of Banning No. 3 Mine]
[The Banning No. 3 Mine was closed ca.1919, it was rebuilt and reopened around ca.1950.]
Owners: (ca.1903-19 ?), Pittsburgh Coal Company, Pittsburgh, PA
                                       Company Store: Federal Supply Company
                                              [Banning No. 3 Mine was closed and abandoned ca.1919.]
                                              [Banning No. 3 Mine was reopened ca.1950.]

Most of the Darr Mine coal company miners' houses in the Village of Van Meter were located along the base of the hill, above the railroad tracks.  Just about all traces of these house have long since disappeared, with only a few remaining.  Many of the Darr Mine miners lived in the Village of Jacobs Creek, across the Youghiogheny River from the Darr Mine.  

Most of the present coal company built miners houses were built for miners working the Banning No. 3 Mine, and not the Darr Mine. The miners dwellings are two-story wood-frame double houses with horizontal siding.  Each has a gable roof with a central brick chimney.  Some of the houses have been greatly altered with various siding materials applied over the original siding.  Managers' row contains large T-shaped double houses oriented towards the river.  Each contains two-stories, a gable roof, a central brick chimney, and concrete-block foundations.

The company Store was a two-story wood-frame building clad with insulbrick.  It featured a central gable roof with a wing on either side.  The building rested on a coursed-rubble stone foundation. After the mines closed the coal company store was sold and the storefront and windows were extensively remodeled when the store was converted into a residence;  however, the building was vacant for some time.  The Coal Company Store was torn down a few years ago, around ca.2005, and a house trailer sets on the site.

The site of the Darr Mine is located along the Yough River Trail, a part of the Great Allegheny Passage Biking Trail on the former Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad bed.  Not much remains at the site of the Darr Mine, a retaining wall of what is said to be the blacksmith shop, a few concrete foundation walls of the tipple and a large pile of boney [Slate dump] on the river bank.  Portions of the  brick walls of the powder magazine, can still be seen on the hill side above the present road. The mine building have fallen down, and the mine portals have collapsed.  An opening to the main mine portal is evident in the hillside above the foundation walls.

The blacksmith shop was converted to the town meeting hall after the Darr Mine was worked out.  The concrete floor was covered with wood flooring, and the building was used as a recreation center, meeting place, and a place were church services were conducted.  In ca.2007, all that remains is the concrete retaining wall and portions of the concrete floor.

The Darr Mine, on the west side of the Youghiogheny River, was connected to Jacobs Creek, on the east side of the Youghiogheny River, by a cable car Ferry [the Sky Ferry], with a large box attached, that ran across the Youghiogheny River, to a structure on the east side of the river.  The cable car ferry was used to transport miners to the Darr Mine from Jacobs Creek, and to haul men and supplies across the river from the Village of Jacobs Creek to the Darr Mine and Van Meter.

Manways were located behind the coal company store and Darr Mine company office building in VanMeter, these were the entries used by the miners and to take the mules and horses into the mine.  This was done so that coal company officials could keep an eye on which miners entered and left the mine.  The Manway was the portal that the miners and mine mules entered the mine through, not the main portal, which was used to transport the loaded mine cars to the tipple.

From the mine inspectors report for 1906, on the Conditions of Mines and Improvements, the following has been extracted.  "Mines located on the and near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Darr Mine - Ventilation not satisfactory at the time of my last visit, but they had ten men at work enlarging and straightening the air ways.  Drainage satisfactory."

Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission Historic Site Marker honoring the coal miners killed in the Darr Mine Explosion, Dec. 19, 1907.  One of the worst mining disasters in the United States.  The plaque is Located at the Olive Branch Cemetery, on PA Route 981 between PA Route 51 and Smithton, PA.
(Photo courtesy of "Focus Magazine", Tribune-Review, Greensburg, PA)

Darr Mine name no longer used.
By ca.1910 the Pittsburgh Coal Company cleaned up the damage caused by the explosion in the Darr Mine and had resumed operations at the Darr Mine portal, though the company dropped the name Darr Mine and simply operated the former Darr Mine as another entry of the adjacent Banning No. 1 Mine, and Banning No. 3 Mine which were connected underground to the Darr Mine tunnels.

By ca.1913 Banning No. 3 Mine employed 350 persons.  That year its miners produced about 155,000 tons of coal.  Situated on the 72 inch-thick Pittsburgh coal seam, the slope-entry Banning No. 3 Mine was served by a tipple on the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad.  There was also a tipple on the Jacobs Creek side of the Youghiogheny River, the east side, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, connected to the Banning No. 3 Mine by a cable car running across the river.

Improvements made at the Banning No. 3 Mine ca.1913, include building 70 stoppings, 2 overcasts, 25 door frames and one pump house, all made of brick.  82 shelter holes were made for the miners.  the motor road was extended 2, 150 feet.  On Robinson coal crusher was installed. A retaining wall 207 feet long and 6 feet high was built.  Double blocks of 35 miners houses were erected in Van Meter for the miners.

In ca.1919 Banning No. 3 Mine employed 227 persons, though it was operated only a small part of the year.  Workers at Banning No. 3 Mine produced less than 30,000 tons of coal in 1919.  Soon thereafter, Pittsburgh Coal Company closed Banning No. 3 Mine and the old Darr Mine entry.

Pittsburgh Coal Company, a division of Consolidation Coal Company (CONSOL) after ca.1945, continued to Operate Banning No. 1 & No. 2 Mines nearby in Fayette County through the 1940's.

Banning No. 3 Mine was reopened ca.1950, and worked to remove the remaining coal reserves.

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