You are standing looking at shaft #1 of Devlin Coal Company. This view is from the slag pile looking down. Today, it is hard to visualize just how massive and important the Devlin/Toluca Mining Operation was.
After Bennington Township was . . . — — Map (db m252953) HM
This large concrete structure, one of two remnants of the Devlin Toluca Mine left today, was essential to the miners as it housed the fan for ventilation into the mine shaft. Using the latest in ventilation and fresh air systems made Toluca's Mine . . . — — Map (db m252950) HM
The Jumbo are a pile of slag, which is coal waste, rock, or gob. They are a landmark of the Longwall mining era and are memorials to the region's coal industry, its workers, and a symbol of Toluca. This symbol at one time stood over 151 feet. To . . . — — Map (db m252958) HM
Only a few remnants of the Toluca Coal Mine still exist today. One of these is this concrete rectangle. During the mining operation, this was a water reservoir used to cool the steam engines. A 6-inch diameter pipe carried water from the open well . . . — — Map (db m252978) HM
From Farmland to the City of Toluca
In 1887, farmers in Bennington Township of Marshall County were having great difficulty marketing their grain and livestock by horse-drawn wagons to Streator, Peoria or Bloomington. Family diaries even . . . — — Map (db m252916) HM
In 1893 the Sante Fe Railroad authorized
Charles Devlin, their manager of mining
properties, to purchase the mineral rights
here to 11,000 acres. The Devlin Coal Company
sank two shafts and began producing coal
using the longwall method, . . . — — Map (db m33669) HM
