This aerial image from October 4, 1938 at 11:57am shows the Williamstown Colliery complex in Williamstown, Pennsylvania on a sunny autumn morning.

The mine continued some operations through the Great Depression until early 1942 when it was closed and slowly dismantled over the subsequent years.

In the image, we can see the web of rail-lines connecting different parts of the colliery complex, most leading to and from the “breaker” or processing building. Hundreds of railroad coal cars await being filled for shipment westward to Millersburg and then to market in Harrisburg, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

The image also shows the towering culm banks located south of the colliery and looming over Williamstown itself. Like many areas in the Coal Region, these hulking piles of coal dirt and rock were on fire, giving rise to this area being known locally as “the Burning Banks.” Decades later, the fire would be extinguished and the culm banks mostly removed.

Today, little remains of the Williamstown Colliery except broken concrete foundations and the tunnel face of the Williamstown Tunnel that once passed 4,000 feet through Big Lick Mountain.

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More Stories about the Williamstown Colliery:

The Williamstown Colliery Disaster of 1904

“A First-Class Breaker” – Photographs of Williamstown Colliery in the 1860s

“Abandoned as Unprofitable” – Williamstown Colliery closes forever

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