Cannel coal is a smoky, easily lit type of coal once used to make oil for lighting. It was popular in the 1850s because one bushel could produce about two gallons of crude oil. Many coal oil plants opened in West Virginia, especially near the Elk, Coal, and Kanawha rivers. But the boom faded after the Civil War and the discovery of petroleum in 1859. As kerosene became more popular, cannel coal lost importance, though some mines stayed open into the 1900s.