This photograph by Jack Delano captures a man identified simply as a “bootleg miner,” part of a larger effort to document the anthracite coal industry and Pennsylvania Coal Region communities during the Great Depression.

Bootleg miners worked illegally, digging coal from company-owned land when regular mining jobs disappeared. It was dangerous work – unstable tunnels below ground, and the constant risk of arrest, fines, or jail above ground if they were caught.

But for many families, it was the only way to survive during the dark years of the Depression.

(Image: Library of Congress)

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Learn more about bootleg mining in Pennsylvania through this interview with author Mitch Troutman

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