Coal was first mined in Michigan in the 1830s in Jackson County, and that area led production through the 1880s. In the next decade, dozens of mines opened in Bay, Saginaw, and Shiawasee counties, producing thousands of tons of coal annually. The hamlet of St. Charles, at the center of this new coal field, expanded rapidly, “touched by the magic hand of good luck.” More than 1,000 people lived there by 1900, and the State Coal Mine Inspector maintained his office there for years. After World War I, a series of labor strikes and diminishing returns from the mines led to a decline in the state’s coal production. Swan Creek Mine, the last producing coal mine in Michigan, closed in 1952.