Farming history Schuylkill County's history is not solely a story about coal mining and railroads. The first settlers were farmers or lumbermen. In the fertile agricultural valleys (not underlain with coal) between the Blue Mountain range in the south to near the Susquehanna River to the north, generations of farming families have helped feed their neighbors in the mines, on the rails, on the canals, and in the towns within and surrounding the county. After settlement of the farms, came a period of diversified, small scale production that lasted until about the late 19th century. After then, more highly mechanized small farms combined livestock and crop production for new, mainly local and regional markets. Then the system re-oriented to add orchard products, trees and plant products and poultry farming. In 2012, the estimated value of agricultural products in Schuylkill County sold was $165,853,000, ranking 9th in the State and 704th in the US (counties). The county ranks in the top 100 in the US counties for nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod products and cut Christmas trees and short rotation woody crops. Coal mined by the
Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company in the
Tamaqua and
Coaldale areas was often shipped down the
Lehigh Canal from
Jim Thorpe in neighboring
Carbon County. To the north, mountain and ridges were a natural barrier to navigation. Other means were required to transport coal out of the rich basin of the
Mahanoy Valley. Several railroads were founded in the late 1820s and early 1830s north of the
Schuylkill Canal to enable the transport of coal to the canal terminus in Philadelphia and other markets, including: •
Little Schuylkill Railroad, from
Port Clinton to Tamaqua, twenty miles in length. • Mill Creek Railroad, from Port Carbon up the valley of
Mill Creek four miles, with about three miles of branch roads intersecting it. This was the first road completed and was in operation part of the year 1829. • Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad, commencing at
Schuylkill Haven to
Minersville having a length, including the west branch, of fifteen miles. There were also about five miles of branches intersecting it. • Mount Carbon Railroad, commencing at
Mount Carbon and extending up the east and west branches of the Norwegian Creek; a length of road seven miles. • Schuylkill Valley Railroad, commencing at
Port Carbon to
Tuscarora, a distance of ten miles, with fifteen branches intersecting it, the distances combined amounting to another ten miles. Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad served the Schuylkill Canal. Chartered in 1831, tracks were laid from the flats in Schuylkill Haven along the river through
Cressona and
Minersville to
Tremont. The railroad eventually reached
Ashland and
Locust Gap via the Gordon Planes. Construction on the Little Schuylkill Railroad began in 1829. It ran from
Port Clinton northward to Mahanoy Junction above Tamaqua. It would become the keystone of the Philadelphia and Reading system, serving as a gauntlet for its eastern and western branches. Connecting with it were four important lines. The Catawissa Railroad operated from Mahanoy Junction to West Milton, providing access to the Mahanoy region by joining the northern terminus of the Little Schuylkill with connections to
New York City,
Scranton and also points west. At Port Clinton, it connected with the
P&R's main line from
Mount Carbon. Its most important connection would be with the Mahanoy and Broad Mountain Railway via Mahanoy Tunnel and East Mahanoy Railroad. There was once over of railroad track in Schuylkill County. At one point in the 19th century, the largest railyard and roundhouse in the world was located at Mill Creek between Pottsville and
St. Clair.
Renewable energy Since the early 21st century, Schuylkill County has decreased its use of coal power and become a major producer of renewable energy. Twenty-five percent of the county's electrical production currently comes from renewable energy sources.
Wind power is the largest producer, accounting for 80% of the renewable energy output, while solar and biomass account for 20%.
Textile industry history Textile manufacturing evolved as a major industry in the county near the beginning of the 20th Century. Phillips & Jones Co., Now known as Phillips Van Heusen, began in
Pottsville, and was once Schuylkill County's largest employer. Another textile giant, John E. Morgan Knitting Mills, began manufacturing in 1945 in
Tamaqua, eventually becoming the largest employer in the county in the between 1970 and 1980. In addition there were numerous smaller shops all over the county, doing subcontract work for major manufacturers all over the nation. In the latter half of the 20th century, the textile industry, which employed significant numbers of women, began to rival the coal mining industry in size, especially after the end of
World War II, when that industry began to collapse. As a consequence of the Great Depression, garment manufacturers began to look for people willing to work at lower wages outside of
New York City, the center of the industry. Pennsylvania became the third-highest ranked apparel manufacturer in the United States by 1940. Women's clothing became the state's fastest growing product. The dominance of the industry in Schuylkill County lasted until the last decade of the 20th century, when it was clear that the garment manufacturing industry was leaving Schuylkill County and other regions of the U.S. and moving to foreign countries. By 2011, only six manufacturers employing 341 people remained in the county. ==Geography==