Black Heath was the name of a coal basin and also of some mines located in this basin. Mining operations started there in 1785 or 1788. The basin was of an oval shape extending north and south and is at times 40 feet thick. The most famous mine and eponym of the Black Heath basin was the Black Heath pit. There is uncertainty about the date coal was found and when it was first mined. A Hessian doctor, after fighting in the American Revolutionary War, traveled around the new country in 1783 to 1784 and wrote about preliminary operations of the Black Heath mines. U.S. President Thomas Jefferson had the White House in Washington, D.C. heated with the high quality coal from the Black Heath mines. Commenting on the area's coal in his "Notes on the State of Virginia", written in 1781–82, then-Governor Jefferson stated: "The country on James river, from 15 to 20 miles above Richmond, and for several miles northward and southward, is replete with mineral coal of a very excellent quality." Jefferson was also referring not only to the Midlothian area, but also to the area of western Henrico County adjacent across the James River near Gayton and Deep Run. There were three shafts in the Black Heath mine and at the bottom of each tunnels connected each shaft.