Coal town

A coal town, also known as a coal camp or patch, is a type of company town or mining community established by the employer, a mining company, which imports workers to the site to work the mineral find. The company develops it and provides residences for a population of miners and related workers to reside near the coal mine. The 'town founding' process is not limited to mining, but this type of development typically takes place where mineral wealth is located in a remote or undeveloped area. The company opens the site for exploitation by first, constructing transportation infrastructure to serve it, and later to establish residences for workers. Mineral resources were sometimes found as the result of logging operations that established clear-cut area. Geologists and cartographers could then chart and plot the lands for exploitation. From the 1850s to the 1950s these company towns became a structural necessity for the bituminous coal industry. Built rapidly and strictly for utility, these settlements allowed coal operators to house a large imported labor force in remote areas while maintaining tight social and economic control with the threat of expulsion from the only available housing.