Westman, Erik C.; Haycocks, Christopher; Zipper, Carl E. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2000)
Coal mining in Virginia's Richmond basin was the first recorded production in the United States (Henderson, 1985). Since that production, more than 2.1 billion tons of coal have been extracted from three primary areas within the state: the Richmond basin, the Valley coal fields, and the Southwest Virginia coal field (Brown et al., 1952; VCCER, 1998).