Editing Beacon, Iowa (section)

==History==
Coal miners in Beacon joined the [[United Mine Workers]] union in 1894, organizing local 178. By 1902, this had 100 members.<ref name="Unions1902">Trade Unions in Iowa &ndash; Table No. 1, Mine Workers of America, United, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5dooAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA232 Tenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the State of Iowa, 1901-1902], Murphy, Des Moines, 1903; page 232.</ref>

Evans, Iowa was a [[coal camp]] {{convert|3|mi|km}} to the northwest founded by Evan Evans. This was home to mines that opened in 1879 and were combined and reorganized as the American mine in 1884, at which time, the daily output was 100 tons.<ref>James H. Lees, History of Coal Mining in Iowa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lLUKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA558 Iowa Geologic Survey], Vol XIX (1908 Annual Report), Des Moines, 1909; page 558.</ref>  By 1894, the [[mine face]] was {{convert|1.5|mi|km}} from the foot of the [[Slope mining|slope]], and the mine was producing 1000 tons of coal a day from a coal seam {{convert|6|ft|m}} thick. This was one of the very few mines where the miners did not join the [[Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894]].<ref>Scenes from the Coal Regions &ndash; LIV &ndash; Top Works of the American Slope Mine, Evans, Mahaska County, Iowa, [https://books.google.com/books?id=029JAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA723 The Coal Trade Journal], Oct. 3, 1894; page 723.</ref>  In 1899 [[United Mine Workers of America]] local 835 was organized, and in 1902, local 1932 was organized. Memberships in these two locals, combined, was 210 in 1901.<ref name="Unions1902" />