Montour Mine No. 4 developed through several stages of coal production and loading. The original mine shaft opened in 1903 about a half-mile to the west. When the Montour Railroad was completed in 1914 to serve the mine, this shaft opened and a vertical shaft reached the coal seam 140 feet underground. Mine cars were hoisted to the top of the tipple, where coal was cleaned, sized, and loaded into railroad cars, while after 1914 the original shaft was used for men and supplies and this shaft was used only for coal loading. In 1953 a sloped shaft was dug into the hillside and a conveyor system brought coal out to a new tipple for direct loading into hopper cars, with the mine capable of loading over 20,000 car loads each year. In 1980 catastrophic flooding caused the mine to close.