Editing Oskaloosa, Iowa (section)

==History==
[[File:Oskaloosa, Iowa (1864).jpg|thumb|left|East side of public square, 1864]]
[[Image:samsmithcoal.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Oskaloosa coal mine.|The Sam Smith coal mine in 1895, located in what is now the 1300 block of High Avenue West.]]
[[Image:rooseveltoskaloosa.jpeg|thumb|left|alt=Theodore Roosevelt campaigns in Oskaloosa.|[[Theodore Roosevelt]] campaigns in the Oskaloosa city square in the fall of 1912.]]

Oskaloosa derives its name from Ouscaloosa who, according to town lore, was a [[Creek (people)|Creek]] princess who married [[Seminole]] chief [[Osceola]].  A local tradition was that her name meant "last of the beautiful". (This interpretation of "last of the beautiful" is not correct. "{{lang|mus|Oskaloosa}}" in the Mvskoke-Creek language means "black rain", from the Mvskoke words "{{lang|mus|oske}}" (rain) and "{{lang|mus|lvste}}" (black). "loosa" is an English corruption of the Mvskoke word "{{lang|mus|lvste}}". For example, see the Wikipedia entry for [[Tuskaloosa]], [[eponym]] of the town of [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]]. In addition the Mvskoke word "{{lang|mus|Ouscaloosa}}" means "Black Water").<ref name="villageprofile.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.villageprofile.com/iowa/oskaloosa/03his/main.html|title=Oskaloosa History|publisher=Community Profile Network, Inc|access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> The first European-American settlers arrived in 1835, led by Nathan Boone, youngest son of frontiersman [[Daniel Boone]]. Acting on instructions from [[Stephen W. Kearny]], he selected this as the first site of [[Montrose, Iowa|Fort Des Moines]], located on a high ridge between the [[Skunk River (Iowa)|Skunk]] and [[Des Moines River|Des Moines]] rivers.  The ridge was originally called the Narrows.

The town was formally platted in 1844 when William Canfield moved his trading post from the [[Des Moines River]] to Oskaloosa.  The town was designated by the legislature as the county seat in the same year.<ref name="villageprofile.com"/>

The Des Moines Valley Railroad built north from [[Eddyville, Iowa]] through Oskaloosa to [[Pella, Iowa]] in 1864. In 1873, this became the Keokuk and Des Moines Railroad, and in 1887, it was leased by the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad]].<ref>Bruce Boertje, [https://historicpellatrust.org/2019/04/08/des-moines-valley-railroad/ Des Moines Valley Railroad], Historic Pella Trust, April 8, 2019.</ref>  The Central Iowa Railway followed, which became the [[Iowa Central Railway]] in 1888 and was absorbed by the [[Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway]] in 1901.  In 1883, the [[Burlington and Western Railway]] reached Oskaloosa; this was a [[narrow gauge]] line that was widened to [[Standard Gauge]] in 1902 and then merged with the [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]].<ref>David Lotz and Charles Franzen, 'Rails to a County Seat', The Print Shop, Washington Iowa, 1989; pages 37, 47-52.</ref>

On January 6, 1882, most of the buildings in the north half of Oskaloosa were severely damaged and most of the plate glass windows in the area were broken by an explosion.  Three boys were killed in the explosion.  The boys had been seen shooting at the A. L. Spencer gunpowder magazine half a mile north of the town center.<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980CE1D7153BE033A25754C0A9679C94639FD7CF "The Explosion at Oskaloosa"], ''New York Times,'' 7 January 1882</ref>

The first [[bituminous coal]] mine in the area was opened shortly after 1853 by Robert Seevers, who drove a [[Drift mining|drift]] into a four-foot coalbed in an exposed creek bank east of town.<ref>{{cite book|title=Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report for 1908|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1BUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA556 556]|year=1909|publisher=Published for the Iowa Geological Survey}}</ref> Initially, coal was mined entirely for local consumption, but with the arrival of the railroads, coal from the region was shipped widely.  In the 1880s, more than one million tons of coal was mined in the county from 38 mines.  By 1887, the report of the state mine inspector listed 11 coal mines in or very close to Oskaloosa.<ref>{{cite book |first=Roberts |last=George E. |year=1888 |title=Third Biennial Report of the State Mine Inspectors to the Governor of Iowa for the years 1886 and 1887 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PRAAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA87 87]}}</ref> By 1895, the coal output of Mahaska County surpassed that of all other Iowa counties, and production had reached more than one million tons per year.<ref>Conaway, Des Moines, 1895, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PRAAAAAAMAAJ&lpg=RA4-PA50&pg=RA5-PA50 ''Seventh Biennial Report of the State Mine Inspectors to the Governor of the State of Iowa for the two years ending June 30, 1895''], page 50.</ref> In 1911, coal mining was reported to be the primary industry in the region.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Oskaloosa |volume=20 |page=351}}</ref> In 1914, the Carbon Block Coal Company of Centerville produced more than 100,000 tons of coal, ranking among the top 24 coal producers in the state.<ref>{{cite book |first=Frederick E. |last=Saward |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NO8oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA65 65] |title=The Coal Trade |year=1915}}</ref>

Several major coal-mining camps were located in the Oskaloosa area.  [[Consolidation Coal Company (Iowa)#Muchakinock|Muchakinock]] was approximately five miles south of town, on the banks of the Muchakinock Creek.  Lost Creek was a [[company town]] and post office with a population of about 500 in 1905, located about 10 miles south of town.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9sxOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA893 Iowa State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1905-1906, Vol XIII], R. L. Polk & Co., 1905; page 893, column 2 center.</ref>  On January 24, 1902, there was a mine explosion in the Lost Creek No. 2 mine.  This was one of only two major mine disasters in Iowa between 1888 and 1913.  A miner setting shots to [[Rock blasting|blast]] coal from the coal face re-used a hole left over from a previous failed shot, and the result was a coal [[dust explosion]] that detonated barrels of [[gunpowder]] stored in the mine. Twenty men died on the site and 14 more were badly injured.  The explosion sparked a statewide miner's [[Strike action|strike]]. As a result, in April 1903, the legislature enacted a law to regulate blasting in coal mines.<ref>Albert H. Fay, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R38fAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA20&pg=RA1-PA190 ''Coal-Mine Fatalities in the United States 1870–1914''], Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Washington DC, 1916, page 190.</ref><ref>Paul Garvin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3a1XkpBGdAcC&lpg=PA199&pg=PA198 ''Iowa's Minerals''], Burr Oak Books, 1998, pages 198–199.</ref>