Around 1905, this photograph captured miners deep beneath Scranton preparing to send a car of anthracite coal up a shaft that may have stretched 1,500 feet to the surface. Read the Full Story.
In 1877, a mine fire in Lykens, PA did more than just rage out of control underground. It threw 800 men out of work, left families destitute, and occurred amid one of the most explosive years in American labor history. This new video explores the human cost of disaster in the Coal Region. Watch the Video.
On New Year’s Day 1877, fire erupted deep inside the Short Mountain Colliery and would not be easily contained. It burned for months, idled hundreds of miners, and shook the communities of Lykens and Wiconisco during a national depression. This new video traces the disaster and its aftermath. Watch the video.
In this video interview, I talk with historian Mitch Troutman about The Bootleg Coal Rebellion - the story of Pennsylvania miners who refused to starve when the industry collapsed. We explore survival, dignity, and resistance in the Coal Region, and why this history still matters today. Watch the Video.
In May 1871, fire swept Pittston’s Knight Shaft. Eleven-year-old mule driver Martin Crahan turned back from safety to warn miners, was refused behind their barricade, and chose to die beside his teams. Nineteen others perished. A poem immortalized his courage in the face of a disaster similar to one that ravaged Avondale, PA two years earlier. Read the full story.
In 1911, activist Lewis Hine found 13-year-old Willie Brieden working as a nipper 500 feet underground in Pittston, PA - alone in the dark, opening heavy doors as gas hissed nearby. Days later, Willie was home sick, coughing from endless hours in the damp mine. A childhood bent to anthracite's demands, captured in one image. Read the full story.
In December 1935, Rebecca Wylie’s death closed a chapter of Coal Region memory. She was the last widow of the Avondale Mine Disaster, where 110 men and boys perished in 1869. Her first husband, Andrew Frothingham, died that day - his eyes “staring wide open.” She carried the loss for life. Read the full story.
In 1859 at Tuckerville Colliery in Schuylkill County, 32-year-old Irish mineworker John Hinch was pulled headfirst into the breaker rollers - an unthinkable death reported in chilling detail by the Miners’ Journal. His story lays bare the daily peril of Coal Region work before safety laws existed. Read the full story.
On an October morning in 1864, six miners entered a Schuylkill County colliery and never returned. Despite a frantic rescue, all were lost—with grieving families left behind. This Civil War–era disaster reveals the peril that stalked Pennsylvania’s coal towns before safety laws and reforms followed. Read the full story.
Stephen Crane’s vivid McClure’s Magazine account plunges into a Scranton, PA anthracite mine, describing granite walls, roaring descent, and oppressive darkness. Experience his visceral portrayal of fear and wonder as the wooden elevator hurtles into the earth’s depths. A haunting glimpse into late-19th-century mining life. Read the full story.