Friday, March 23, 2012

The Forgotten Coal Industry of NEPA

Having grown up and lived and worked most of my life in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it's hard to imagine the coal industry ever being forgotten. Its mementos are all around us: the decaying structures, the long-repurposed mansions of the Coal Barons, the culm banks, the scarred land, the poisoned streams, the occasional mine subsidence, and the need for residents to purchase mine subsidence insurance. But some people have forgotten - or, living outside the "Coal Region" that is concentrated in the Wyoming Valley, have chosen not to pay attention to this history at all. (And in Marcellus Shale territory, history is repeating itself.)

Ed is taking care of that with his blog.

This page is dedicated to the coal industry of NEPA and to make sure it doesn't become a forgotten piece of our past. As an explorer, most my explorations are of abandoned coal mining related buildings, I do stray away from that at times though. So much of the industry has been lost. Most of the collieries are long gone but some still have buildings that still stand to this day, some abandoned some used.

The Forgotten Coal Industry of NEPA
http://theforgottencoalindustryofnepa.blogspot.com/

Coal mine exploration, like other explorations on abandoned sites, can be dangerous and even illegal. Ed doesn't encourage anyone to try this stuff on their own. Instead, just visit the blog and let Ed show you the things he has found. And never forget the Coal Industry of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

2 comments:

MJ Bush said...

My late grandfather, Joseph Zaverl, an immigrant from Slovenia, worked in the coal mines of Lackawanna County. At the age of 36, while in the mines, was hit in the head with a steel hook that pulled the cart filled with coal up to the surface. He left his wife, my grandmother, a widow with four children under the age of 12. My mom was 10. I will not forget the coal mining industry.

D.B. Echo said...

I used to work with a Carl Zaverl at a DVD factory. Is he a relative, I wonder?