Photograph shows efforts to remove “burning banks” in Williamstown, PA | 1940s

For decades, a slow-burning fire smoldered beneath a massive culm pile on Big Lick Mountain in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, sending sulfurous smoke over the town. In the 1940s, efforts began to reclaim the site - hauling coal from the “Burning Banks” and battling the underground blaze that wouldn’t die until the 1970s. Read the full story.

Photograph shows a scarred landscape somewhere in Northeastern Pennsylvania | 1964

A coal strip mine in Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1964

This stark photo from Northeastern Pennsylvania reveals the lasting impact of anthracite strip mining on the region’s terrain. Witness how centuries of digging for coal shaped an environment still recovering from the dramatic ups and downs of America’s Industrial Revolution. Read more of the story.