# Coal found in all states except Hawaii? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2018, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871 "2018-03-20T08:34:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/21 "2018-03-20T17:19:45Z")
Plenty of coal is burned in Florida by utility power plants, although gas and renewables are taking over like anywhere else. Could the people who handle the stuff on the retail side be members of the association? ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/22 "2018-03-22T02:16:31Z")
Being that Hawaii is relatively “New” geologically speaking, and constantly building itself from lava rather than having normal continental type stuff under it where tons of forests died fell and became buried and what not, would it not be nearly impossible for Hawaii to have coal? And Florida being a somewhat recently exposed lump of dead coral and sea shells would also seem to maybe not be a good place for looking for coal? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/23 "2018-03-22T02:49:33Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Being that Hawaii is relatively “New” geologically speaking, and constantly building itself from lava rather than having normal continental type stuff under it where tons of forests > died fell and became buried and what not, would it not be nearly impossible for Hawaii to have coal? Yes, it would be highly unlikely > [@Weisshund](#): > > And Florida being a somewhat recently exposed lump of dead coral and sea shells > would also seem to maybe not be a good place for looking for coal? Not really true. Parts of Florida have been around for hundreds of millions of years, which is sufficiently long for coal to form, though I have no idea if any exists or, if it does, whether it exists in economically recoverable form. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/24 "2018-03-22T04:12:00Z")
> [@Weisshund](#): > > Being that Hawaii is relatively “New” geologically speaking, and constantly building itself from lava rather than having normal continental type stuff under it where tons of forests > died fell and became buried and what not, would it not be nearly impossible for Hawaii to have coal? Exactly. That’s why it says “except Hawaii” in the subject line. What about the other states? There are (were) none in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut, and Florida probably doesn’t. Most of the others do (did) have at least one coal mine, but what about these? Delaware Minnesota New Jersey New York South Carolina I’d be surprised if New York and Minnesota never had coal mines; the others, it’s hard to say. Google doesn’t seem to help much. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/25 "2018-03-22T13:14:03Z")
I think James Fenimore Cooper’s _The Pioneers_ was set in what’s now New York, and the leader of the village is hopeful of finding coal nearby (because forests are quickly depleted, but a coal seam lasts forever, of course). I don’t know whether his hope was justified, but it was at least seen as reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/26 "2018-03-22T13:47:35Z")
Google tells me that there isn’t a history of coal mining in NY but of course it’s hard to prove a negative. However, it’s true that it’s reasonable for there to be coal in NY due to its geology, and indeed people did prospect for coal there, and thought they found it at least once, but it turned out to be “false coal” that was made from the wrong sort of plant material. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/27 "2018-03-22T15:05:12Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Exactly. That’s why it says “except Hawaii” in the subject line. > > What about the other states? There are (were) none in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut, and Florida probably doesn’t. Most of the others do (did) have at least one coal mine, but what about these? > > Delaware > Minnesota > New Jersey > New York > South Carolina > > I’d be surprised if New York and Minnesota never had coal mines; the others, it’s hard to say. Google doesn’t seem to help much. Again, for which states have coal mines now I see no reason to doubt EIA’s data, repeating the link. The NMA employment data is clearly not useful for this purpose IMO. [https://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table1.pdf](https://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table1.pdf) On states with mines previously Google will yield quite a bit going to ‘books’, setting a date range way back and search for ‘coal production’ and looking through various old publications which pop up. In this 1894 publication, 28 states not including any of the ones you just mentioned were listed as producing coal > **[The Production of Coal in 1894 ...](https://books.google.com/books?id=W03nAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA83&dq=COAL%2BPRODUCTION&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj8LzbjYDaAhWi5oMKHZ8JC3gQ6AEILTAB#v=snippet&q=new%20york&f=false)** In this 1864 pub 15 states, territories and DC, but not including ‘certain of the disloyal states’. It included Minnesota. Also Rhode Island which as mentioned previously along with adjacent areas of MA appear to be the only places in New England where coal was ever mined in the industrial era. > **[Coal and Coal-mining](https://books.google.com/books?id=yHopAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA253&dq=COAL%2BPRODUCTION&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO9fvgkIDaAhUlrlkKHVhnB78Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=state&f=false)** In this 1848 pub p. 137 wrt to New York: “both anthracite and bituminous coal have numerous localities but invariably in quantities too small for useful or economic purposes”. And p. 320 describes NJ and DE having tertiary lignite deposits “not sufficiently concentrated to form workable coal beds”. (sorry forgot to paste that one, but you get the idea) In this 1836 geological report on NJ is mentioned the “fruitless search for coal among the formations of NJ”. p. 13 > **[Report on the Geological Survey of the State of New Jersey](https://books.google.com/books?id=KE_PAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA97&dq=coal%2Bnew%2Bjersey&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjkvY6TlYDaAhVNuVkKHQ7fD4MQ6AEILTAB#v=snippet&q=coal&f=false)** This 1830 article on NY coal formations starting p.21 discusses potential, not explicitly referring to any past coal mining in the state. And apparently no such industry arose after this was written either. [The American Journal of Science and Arts - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=g2IWAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA21&dq=coal+new+york&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGndewl4DaAhVQnOAKHeeADsMQ6AEISjAG#v=onepage&q=coal%20new%20york&f=false) I’m sure one could go on a long time in such searches. But it would probably be limited mainly to the industrial age. Prior to that it seems possible very marginal deposits in various places, if close to the surface, might have been mined for local use. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871/28 "2018-03-22T19:45:40Z")
Tackling my own state of SC, there seems to be [no coal at all](https://thediggings.com/usa/south-carolina/commodities). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coal-found-in-all-states-except-hawaii/810871.md?page=1)