The coal mines in Bridgeport date back to the middle 1800's. There is very little documentation of the individual coal mines. Most of the information available today has come from individuals who remember the coal mines or remember stories told to them by their parents or friends. There are only a few people alive today that can verify the location and history of the Bridgeport Coal Mines. One of the men is Frank Bordner, a Bridgeport resident, whose father worked in the coal mines. The story of the coal mines that appears in this document is primarily from the records accumulated by Frank Bordner.
History of Coal Mining in Bridgeport, Texas

               Coal was discovered in Bridgeport in 1860 by Charles D. Cates while digging a water well.  However mining did not begin until the late 1880s .The first mine was the “ Wise County Coal  Co. # 1 .     It was located in the northeast part of town.  Later the “ Drift # 1 “  was located in the southeast part of town.   Later in about 1900 the “Bridgeport Coal Co. “ was formed in west Bridgeport.  Then number 2, number 3 and number 4 mines were sunk.  These mines operated until 1929.  The  “Cockle Bur Mine” was sunk later but was not operated because of too much water that had broken into the mine.
Click on the Photos to Enlarge
There are 14 mines which can be identified today. There were probably more mines than this but they cannot be verified. Therefore, they are not mentioned here. A larger map showing the location of the 14 mines can be viewd by clicking on the small map on your left.
                From 1931 until 1941 Tom Byrnes, a former Bridgeport Coal Company  foreman, owned two coal mines. The first one was “the Dead Rat” and the second was  “the Byrnes and Byrnes“.  There are no known photos of the Byrnes & Byrnes but a replica was made by Frank Bordner and is shown by the the picture on the left.

Two other mines on the outer limits of Bridgeport were the Grill and Carrier mines. These two mines lasted about one year. 

One other mine that produced coal for a couple of years was the Singleton Mine. This mine was abandoned in 1942. A photo of this mine is shown on the left.
                During the operation of these mines there were 500--600 miners of which  75 %  were Mexicans.  A lot of the Mexicans were imported from Mexico as far back as 1901 (according to the Dallas Morning News).  Most of these Mexicans lived  in Company houses, traded at the Company store which was stocked with groceries, hardware, clothing and a meat market.  In the corner of the store was a small bank where the miners could exchange their company “scrip” for U. S. money so they  could go to “town” and make purchases .

                   From the Byrnes and Byrnes mine--coal was taken to Ft Worth, Tex.   And was “tested” for many different products----such as tar, sulfur and many other products.  An agreement was made by Mr. Byrnes and the company to do this. Mr. Byrnes then had a double shaft mine sunk by the road that goes to Lake Bridgeport.  Then it happened ! The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the miners started working in the defense plants, trains were converting to burning oil, natural gas was being used to heat homes and that began the end of the coal mining in Bridgeport.  All of the mines were shut down by the end of 1942. All of the coal mine shale tailings have been hauled away to the local brick plant to make brick. Now there is no evidence of the coal mining ever existing in Bridgeport.
On 9 December 1997, Melissa Majka, interviewed Frank Bordner on his memories of the Coal Mine Industry in Bridgeport, Texas. Melissa prepared a paper reflecting Franks thoughts. You should read this paper to get a better understanding of the coal mine years in Bridgeport. Click on the document to the left in order to read the interview with Frank.
Frank."Petie" Bordner was constantly being ask questions about the coal mines of Bridgeport. Since Franks father had passed on his coal mining knowledge he decided to put a little bit of this data on paper. In the summer of 1994, Frank prepared an article titled " A Little Bit About The Coal Mines and The Company". You can read this article by clicking on the document on the left.
The veins of coal in the Bridgeport area were small so the miners had to work on their hands & knees and sometimes had to lay on their backs. The tools that the miners used were very small due to the limited work space. To view photos of the tools and understand how they were used click on the photo on the left.
There are a number of photographs from the coal mine days shown on a page titled "Memories From The Past". Some of the photographs are identified and some are not. Click on the title and view some of the past coal mine history.
"Memories From The Past"
Return to Home Page