In this photograph by Isaac Kunkel, two unidentified mineworkers stand at the Lykens Valley Coal Company colliery in Bear Gap, Wiconisco Township – just after the Civil War.

Behind them is the Lykens Valley Drift, first opened in 1831 by the Wiconisco Coal Company.

For decades it followed a coal vein straight into Big Lick Mountain, pushing eastward for miles. It was an early way into the anthracite veins above the water table, allowing the mine to drain via gravity.

By the 1860s, this kind of mining was already becoming obsolete.

Drifts gave way to deep slopes, then vertical shafts, that plunged hundreds of feet underground, chasing richer veins of coal and reshaping how the Coal Region mined anthracite.

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Read more about coal mining at Wiconisco Township

History of the Short Mountain Colliery

Video | The Lykens Mine Fire of 1877: A Forgotten Coal Region Disaster

An 1835 visit to the mines at Wiconisco Township

Lykens miners determined to save their workplace at historic Short Mountain Colliery | October 1933

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