Interview with a survivor of the 1904 Williamstown Colliery Disaster
David Watkeys was pulled unconscious from the Williamstown Tunnel on May 25, 1904. He survived to tell his story.
David Watkeys was pulled unconscious from the Williamstown Tunnel on May 25, 1904. He survived to tell his story.
10 miners were killed when toxic gas from a locomotive filled Williamstown Tunnel on May 25, 1904
Isaac Kunkel photographed the Williamstown Colliery in 1860s and documented the birth of a new town.
In January 1942, workers began dismantling the once thriving Williamstown mining operation.
In December 1873, a 4,000 foot tunnel was completed through Big Lick Mountain in Dauphin County. Williamstown Tunnel opened up Bear Valley for profitable coal mining.
On December 1, 1871, the Kalmia Colliery breaker burned to the ground, nearly killing a night crew of workers trapped inside by the fumes.
Budd served during the Civil War and later became a prominent citizen in Dauphin County’s largest mining community.
“We are men and all we ask is to be treated as such,” wrote the miners in a public letter published during their 1886 strike.
In July 1906, engineers from rival coal mines played for bragging rights in northern Dauphin County.
Our first Facebook Live video gives a short history of Williamstown Tunnel at the southwestern border of the Coal Region