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 of experts conferring on reforestation in the Coal Region | 1940

Two experts confer about reforestation efforts in the Coal Region in 1940

In 1940, two experts stood atop a 25-year-old culm bank near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, discussing how to bring forests back to a landscape ravaged by mining. This striking photograph documents an era as reclamation efforts began in anthracite country. Read the full story.