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.
The completion of Williamstown Tunnel – 1873

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.
A recent visit to the site of Kalmia Colliery in Schuylkill County reveals life in an abandoned patch town.
Richard Nolen helped build the mining communities of northern Dauphin County. In 1865, he described how much they had changed.
Corporal Raymond Holwig died during the fight for the strategically important Pacific Island in July 1944.
A dispatch to the New York Times from August 1874 details life and work in the thriving Dauphin County mining community.
On a sunny Saturday in August 1918, more than 150 young men prepared for entry into the U.S. Army at the town park in Elizabethville, PA.
Photographs taken on Memorial Day 1907 in Williamstown, Pennsylvania show a community commemorating its war dead.
The veteran of the 96th Pennsylvania read his poem at Memorial Day festivities in Harrisburg on May 29, 1879.
A recent visit to a cemetery in Schuylkill County inspired an examination of a dark chapter of local history.
Workmen on the Wiconisco Canal assaulted poll workers in Halifax, threw out votes, and started their own election.