Editing Lovilia, Iowa (section)

==History==
Lovilla was laid out in 1853.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/historymonroeco00cogoog | title=The History of Monroe County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, &c. | publisher=Western Historical Company | year=1878 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/historymonroeco00cogoog/page/n367 383]}}</ref>

Coal was known north and south of Lovilia in the early 1900s, and there were scattered "country mines" in the area.<ref>James H. Lees, "History of Coal Mining in Iowa," Chapter III of [https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA230 ''Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report, 1908''], Des Moines, 1909; page 230.</ref>

On March 30, 1953, there was a [[dust explosion]] at the O'Brien Mine, a [[coal mine]] near Lovilia.  Two men, including the mine foreman, were in the mine to fire the [[black-powder]] shots at the end of the work shift.  Both were killed in the blast.  Volunteers from Lovilia went into the mine and brought out the bodies, and then the owner of the O'Brien mine, along with three officials of a nearby mine and an employee went underground to investigate.  Of the five, only two survived; the others were overcome by bad air.  The ensuing investigation determined that the dust explosion was caused by a blow-out in two of the blasted holes.  A blow-out occurs when the force of the explosion blows the [[Drilling and blasting#Procedure|stemming]] out of a hole instead of breaking up the surrounding material.  In the case of the O'Brien mine, the stemming used was a mix of coal dust and clay.<ref>H. B. Humphrey, [https://books.google.com/books?id=58HBaYSQzmsC&pg=PA246 Historical Summary of Coal Mine Explosions in the United States, Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7900], Government Printing Office, 1959; pages 246, 249-250.</ref>

In 1972, the Lovilia Coal Company was operating one of the last two underground coal mines in Iowa.  The mine employed 21 workers and produced 245,000 tons of coal that year.  This was a [[room and pillar]] mine.<ref>Richard N. Stolp and Frederick P. Deluca, [https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=emrri_reports Perspectives on Iowa Coal], Energy and Mineral Resources Research Institute Reports, 1 (1976); pages 23-24</ref>

In 1985, the Star Coal Company of Lovilia was the largest employer in [[Monroe County, Iowa]], with 150 employees.  Coal production was 500,000 tons per year, about 80 percent of Iowa's total coal production.<ref>Tom Seery, [https://apnews.com/article/c74f5921cd2a7bfeadda6cff69625d38 Iowa Coal Industry Rises from the Depths], Associated Press, Oct. 15, 1985.</ref>