In the late 1930s, Jack Delano photographed the silent ruins of the Shenandoah City Colliery, a once-massive operation left to decay as the Great Depression and industrial change gutted the anthracite industry. This is what collapse looked like in real time across Schuylkill County. Read the Full Story.
Taken in 2002 from inside the ruined St. Nicholas Central Breaker, this photograph looks out over a patch town that once lived by the rhythm of anthracite coal production. Built in 1931 and demolished in 2018, the breaker’s rise and fall mirrors the Coal Region itself. Read the Full Story.
Snow, culm banks, and an abandoned headframe are all that remain at Maple Hill Colliery, once one of the largest anthracite operations above Shenandoah. This short piece pairs a stark winter photograph from 2000 with the story of a mine that shipped more than 27 million tons of coal before going silent in 1955. Read the full story.