Once Upon a Heights

Long before Windsor Heights became the heart of it all and trees lined streets, much of what lay beneath the ground was hollowed out by coal miners. In the early 1900s, the land that would eventually become Windsor Heights sat atop a web of underground tunnels, shafts, and coal seams that fueled homes, businesses, and industry throughout central Iowa.

Four major coal mines operated within what are now the city’s boundaries, and all of them worked below the surface. Though the mines are long gone, their presence shaped the land in ways that can still be traced today.

On the north side of Hickman Road, just east of North Walnut Creek, the Urbandale Coal Company Mine operated quietly for more than two decades. From 1920 to 1942, miners descended a vertical shaft nearly 180 feet deep to reach the coal below. Little remains recorded about the day-to-day life of the mine, but its underground reach was extensive. Beneath the surface, tunnels stretched southward under what are now northern 75th Street and western Wilshire Boulevard, covering roughly 122 acres of land that would later become residential neighborhoods.

The most expansive of Windsor Heights’ mines was the Gibson Coal Mining Company Mine No. 5. Operating from 1908 to 1918, this mine lay beneath what is now the heart of the city’s residential areas. Its underground workings extended from Plaza Hills near 74th Street across to Washington Avenue in the northeast, south to Elmcrest Drive, and southwest toward today’s Apple Valley Drive. The mine’s entrance sat at 72nd Street and Forest Court, where miners entered a 160-foot-deep shaft each day. State records show that coal prospecting revealed thickening seams to the west, with additional coal deposits to the east and south—evidence of why the mine spread so widely beneath the future city.

Perhaps the most remembered operation from Windsor Heights’ mining era was the West Side Mine, later owned by the Des Moines Ice and Fuel Company. Originally developed by the Colby family, the mine covered about 85 acres, mostly south of University Avenue. In 1917, the Colbys sold the mine, and it continued operating until 1925. The entrance was located just south of 70th Street and University Avenue, where miners disappeared underground each day beneath land that was still largely open and undeveloped. As the mine expanded, it passed beneath what are now the Apple Valley Shopping Center area and extended east under present-day 69th Street, 68th Street, and School Street. Even today, the mine’s legacy is visible: many homes on 69th Street south of University Avenue were built without basements due to the unstable ground below.

The Keystone Coal Company Mine reached beyond Windsor Heights into neighboring West Des Moines. Covering nearly 195 acres, it operated from 1908 to 1922 and functioned as a “shipping mine,” producing coal for markets beyond the immediate area. Its entrance was located on the east side of Eighth Street in West Des Moines, between Clegg Road and Center Street. Within Windsor Heights, the mine’s tunnels ran from 63rd Street to 73rd Street along what is now the freeway corridor, branching north and south as coal seams were followed underground. The main shaft descended 165 feet, though coal was encountered at multiple levels along the way.

By the mid-1920s, coal mining in the area had come to an end. Over time, the land above the mines was filled, graded, and developed into the Windsor Heights residents know today. Streets were laid, homes were built, and daily life moved forward—often with little awareness of the tunnels and shafts far below. Yet beneath the city’s modern surface lies a hidden chapter of hard labor and industry, one that helped power central Iowa and quietly shaped the foundations of Windsor Heights itself.