At the dawn of the 20th century, Lykens, Dauphin County bustled as a industrial hub at the southwestern border of Pennsylvania’s Coal Region.
In this historic photograph – carefully preserved in the remarkable collection of local historian Sally Reiner – we look north along Market Street. Towering coal (culm) banks from the Short Mountain Colliery dominate the skyline, their massive piles of coal refuse completely obscuring the mine operations at Bear Gap above the neighboring village of Wiconisco.
In the immediate foreground, a wagon marked “L.B.C.” hints at the area’s thriving commercial life. This likely belonged to the Lykens Brewing Company and was captured right at the intersection of Market and Main streets, forming the beating heart of Lykens’s business district.
Farther up Market Street, an early automobile – or “horseless carriage” – highlights the dawning of a new era of transportation, even as horse-drawn wagons still plied these same streets.
This image captures Lykens, Pennsylvania at arguably its most successful and important period, just on the verge of major changes in labor relations and with a mining industry that had both its busiest time and its ultimate collapse in the decades ahead.
Read more about Lykens, Pennsylvania
Henry Keiser’s ‘reminiscences’ of Lykens and Wiconisco before the Civil War
“A Town That Wouldn’t Say Die!” – Lykens, Pennsylvania in 1937
“An Historical Sketch” – Dr. Charles H. Miller’s early history of Lykens
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My mother’s family named Lechleitner lived in Wiconisco. I would love any related articles. I live just outside Philadelphia. My mother is still healthy at 94 and it would be great reading material for her.