The Pittsburgh No. 8 coal seam at Powhatan Point lies 100 feet below river level and extends across much of eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. The Cleveland and Western Coal Company, founded by Cleveland industrialist Frank E. Taplin, opened the Powhatan No. 1 mine here in 1922 to use both river and rail transportation. It became the largest deep mine in Ohio and the first mine in the state to be completely mechanized. Reorganized as the North American Coal Corporation in 1925, the company operated seven shaft mines in this area during the twentieth century. Four of these mines closed between 1980 and 1984 as clean air standards made locally mined high-sulfur coal difficult to market. During World War II, coal mines increased output for the war effort amid dangerous conditions. On July 5, 1944, a section of roof fell in No. 3 entry at C North face of Powhatan No. 1, where a trolley wire shorted and ignited the coal seam, trapping sixty-six miners deep underground. Rescue and firefighting efforts failed, and officials sealed the mine to extinguish the fire, also sealing the miners' fate. The tragedy, following two 1940 disasters at the Hanna Coal Company's Willow Grove mine and Y&O Coal's Nelms mine, deeply affected the close-knit community. The Powhatan fire was this area's last mining disaster of the twentieth century.