Lackwanna Coal Mine

One big lump of coal

Perhaps the word most synonymous with the Pennsylvania of old is coal mining. The Scranton area was dubbed the “Anthracite Capital of the World” for the enormous amount of Anthracite coal located in the Lackawanna valley. Drift mining began in this area in the early 1800s and by the 1840s shafts were beginning to be dug to access coal deposits deeper in the earth. Strip mining started in the early 1900s and by the late 1950s was producing more coal than any other method. Anthracite coal is much harder and burns much more slowly than bituminous coal making it the preferred coal for home heating and industrial use.

Lackawanna Valley Overlook on Route 6

At the Lackawanna Coal Mine inside McDade Park in Scranton we got a real feel for the excruciatingly hard work of the coal miners and the importance of coal in American history, especially the Industrial Revolution. We purchased our tickets and climbed (crawled might be a better word) inside the yellow mine car. Gene had mentioned wanting to go down in a mine, but on the day of the trip it was I who was more anxious to go. However, doubts began to fill my head as the doors to this little yellow cage were securely closed and we began our descent backwards into the black hole called #190 tethered to the surface only by a 1 inch steel cable. 100 feet, 200 feet, 300 feet into the earth. Is this the hole to China? Or is this just the center of the earth where that great big snake lives? Our tour guide was a former miner (I assume retired) and was therefore very knowledgeable. I put a whole lot of faith in him to get me out of there if something went wrong.

The Yellow Cage (Mine Car), our ride

Into the Mine

The type of car that carried the miners into the mine

At the end of our length of cable and when the mine car came to rest in the cold, damp earth we donned our hard hats and set forth on foot. We were deep inside an 1860 anthracite coal mine. It was a cool 50 degrees, damp and dreary with small puddles of water standing along side the planking we were standing on. It didn’t help my frame of mind that we had watched the short film which included a segment of when this very mine had flooded (killing 12) when the river broke through a thin spot at the surface. We followed our guide (I tried to stay pretty close) along the main gangway of the Clark Vein stopping to view artifacts of this once active mine and be amused by the mechanical movements of the mannequins dressed as coal dust-covered miners. Leaving the main gangway we took a low-ceilinged tunnel to connect with the Dunmore #2 vein. After passing through 2 sets of doors which create an air lock, we came to the end of this shaft and the end of our tour at the emergency “lift” which is used to rescue miners. I was practically holding hands with the guide by this point. Backtracking through the air lock, rock tunnel, and the main gangway, we crowded back into our mine car for the blessed ascent to the surface.

Mine art

Happy to be back on top of the earth again.

In all seriousness, mining was a very difficult and dangerous job, especially during the time when the mine owners were king. They owned it all—the mine, the coal, the land above, the house on the land, and the company store. Miners were paid just pennies a day for the 15 tons (3 car loads) of coal they were expected to produce each day. Those pennies were then spent on rent for the small house which the mine owner owned and groceries from the owner’s company store. Children began working for the mining company as young as age 6 at jobs above ground and by age 10 they were going underground. Long before Unions were established working conditions in the mines were brutal but in this area during the 1800s and the first half of the 20th century there were few other jobs. Our guide, after being discharged from military service and returning home to Scranton, went to work in the mines. He put it this way--“Nobody liked it,” he said, “but there was nothing else to do.”

Three of these car loads was expected of each miner each day.