“Growing up in Coal County ”by Susan Campbell Bartoletti . A book I read during my Engineering project days in 2003.The story ,the plot ,the characters everything got a place in my heart. The project was setting up LAN nothing to do with coal miners or their hardships. The book went into a hidden room in my mind ,dusted ,cluttered bundled up with different experiences of life finally forgotten.
The Year was 2015 ,I was leading a family life with husband and kids , a busy home maker happened to read about N0.9 coal mine and museum in Landsford , PA. The hidden room was opened and inside there found a memory of the the book I read .Esha was just 2 years and Sidhu 7.Kids cannot understand the happiness I get if I visit that place. Till that time I didn’t get a chance to visit such a place in my life. The weekends were for sight seeing. Visiting and enjoying different places on East coast of US .Packing food and going out with Esha was difficult but enjoyed each moment being outside. Planned to visit One of the coal mines in Pennsylvannia.
A small history about the No 9 Coal Mine .It was first opened in 1855 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. A large vein of Anthracite coal, known as the Mammoth Vein, was the main focus of mining operations in the Panther Valley. Early mining operations in the area were located in the town of Summit Hill, just above Lansford. As the mines in Summit Hill encountered ever increasing levels of groundwater, other methods needed to be employed to reach the coal. The No 9 Mine is driven at a much lower elevation than the mines in nearby Summit Hill. As the tunnel was being driven it allowed groundwater to naturally run out from the mine portal without the need of pumps. The tunnel was driven into the mountain far enough to reach the first vein of coal by the end of 1857. The following year the No 9 Mine was contracted to produce 90,000 tons of Anthracite coal for the company. The No 9 Mine operated from 1855 until June 22, 1972, making it the longest continuously operated deep Anthracite coal mine in the world.
The No 9 Mine was left abandoned until a local group, committed to preserving the region’s coal mining heritage, took control of the property in 1992. This non-profit organization is known as the Panther Creek Valley Foundation and now operates the No 9 Mine as a museum. Restoration work on the mine began in 1995 and the first tours inside began in 2002. Visitors to the mine ride by rail 1,600 feet into the mountain before embarking on a 600 foot guided walking tour.
We started after having breakfast from our home .It was raining outside but still we decided to visit the coal mine .Packed some food for us and set out. It was just 2 hrs journey from our home to Coal mine. Lansford is a county-border borough (town) in Carbon County, Pennsylvania.Carbon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Jim Thorpe, which was founded in 1818 as Mauch Chunk, a company town of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N) along a new wagon road the company was constructing nine miles long to their coal mine, in the area now known as Summit Hill. LC&N also constructed the Lehigh Canal navigations during this time in the area.
In 1827, that wagon road became the nation’s second operating railroad,the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad which is regarded as the world’s first roller coaster, which became its main function between 1873 and 1931. The area around Mauch Chunk was known as the “Switzerland of America”, the long wide slack water pool above the Lehigh’s upper dam being surrounded by Mauch Chunk Ridge, Bear Mountain, Pisgah Ridge, Mount Pisgah, Nesquehoning Ridge, Broad Mountain and their various prominences and summits.In the 1830s, the first blast furnaces in Northampton County were built by the LC&N in an attempt to make anthracite iron, the foundation of the early industrial revolution in America. The LC&N also built the first wire rope factory in the U.S. in Mauch Chunk.
When we reached coal mine there were only few people in the line.we took the ticket and we got a tour guide and got into a wagon .Tourists can examine the original 700 foot deep mine shaft, walk the “mule-way” (where young men guided the mules between the different levels of the mine), and see a miner’s hospital cut into solid rock. We got a detailed explanation from our tour guide who was really nice to us. Outside on the grounds is the museum, housed in the No9 Mine’s original “Wash Shanty” constructed before the First World War. The museum houses the largest collection of mining artifacts in the area. The many items on display include tools, blasting equipment, household goods, and more that belonged to the miners who worked the No 9 Mine.
Inside the museum is a gift shop that offers visitors items such as books, carved coal pieces, and t-shirts among other goods. We spent 1 hour there bought t-shirts for Esha and Sidharth thanked our tour guide and retuned back to our home. A happy travel to a place carrying history of coal mining and coal workers. A place that remains in my mind till my death.