A dark, hulking mass visible through the growth of kudzu is one of the few remaining signs of the town of Praco in Jefferson County, Alabama (map below). The fortress-like structure, a grouping of coal silos eerie in their vine-covered abandoned state, is a reminder that the area was once bustling with miners who pulled coal from the earth for the Pratt Consolidated Coal Co., from which the town's name was derived. The mines were later owned by Alabama By-Products.
Today, numerous roadbeds lined with gravel and slate criss-cross the land in the West Jefferson community, now owned by Walter Energy.
Although the mine closed in the late 1950s, the town survived until 1981, according to an article in The New York Times about the eviction of residents from the small company homes that Christmas season. Evictions were delayed until summer of 1982 following an outcry over the timing, the article said.
By that time, the mine had long since stopped producing and the commissary had closed. The small homes owned by Alabama By-Products were in need of maintenance. The 1981 article said, "The president, Gene W. Lewis, points out that the Praco coal mines were closed 24 years ago, that his company is probably the last coal outfit in Alabama still providing housing ..."
When the town was established the mines were remote and workers needed places nearby to live. But as time passed and the country grew more interconnected by roads and cars, the need for "company towns" diminished.
The ruins of Praco
The town of Praco was established about two decades before its post office opened in 1931. At its height, 1,700 workers pulled coal from the Praco mines and the company provided 600 houses.
By the time the town ceased to exist in 1981, Alabama By-Products was still maintaining about 80 homes that were more than 50 years old. Retirees and their families lived in the modest houses.
Today, most have been torn down, although a few small homes remain in the area that appear to have been built when the mines were operational. In addition to the silo, the entrance to the mine remains, etched with the words: Alabama By-Products Corporation, PRACO, 1929.
NOTE: The mine is on private property and is extremely dangerous to enter.
About a mile-and-a-half beyond the entry to the now impassable streets from Jefferson County Road 81/Flat Top Road, is a cemetery with the graves of more than 200 black miners and their families. An online document about the cemetery identifies only 11 of the people buried there, including veterans from Korea, World War I and WWII, as well as 39-year-old Willie Jiles who was killed in the mine in 1943.
Disasters in Praco's history
These are just a few of the deaths and disasters I came across during my research:
- A
- The coal plant burned in 1943 and was replaced with a coal preparation plant and tipple in the shadow of the silo structure that still exists at the site. According to a 1944 issue of "The L&N Employees' Magazine," the new plant could produce 6,000 tons of coal daily.
- An explosion in Praco mines in May 1943 killed 10 miners and injured five, according to the book,
- The book
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