Glad I did not have to work there! But then, years ago we put up with a lot of dust from grinding feed for cows and putting up hay and straw along with fitting fields, etc. Dust all over the place meant bad times in old age for many years ago.
Yup, my grandfather was a coal miner in Pennsylvania during the late 40's and early 50's. By 1955, he was relegated to sitting in a chair and coughing his lungs up from black lung. He was 67 when he finally succumbed to the disease. Tough, tough way to try to make a living for sure.
Where abouts if you know? Been riding atvs through coal country, centralia (fires still burning), slatington, trevorton, ashland, etc
he worked the Anthracite mines in the Scranton/Carbondale/Wilkes Barre areas. He was my paternal grandfather. On my mother's side, her 3 brothers and her father were also miners in the same area during the same era.
I know the area well. Those towns, especially the smaller ones have struggles since the mining dwindled away. Here a good read on centrailia....... Centralia mine fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maybe..... route 61 was closed down and rerouted around. You'll need to research the area, its been some years since ive been up. If you park near the re-routed section, cross the blocked off area (a pile of dirt), the road is warped, very weird, with heat and smoke coming from the cracks. The area can be extremely dangerous, with sudden cave ins per the sign. There is a lot of graffiti, and a bit of a tunnel to go through. I would've felt safer carrying. The original mayor from what I last heard still lived there, along with a few other residents that refused to leave. There is vent pipes in the ground in different areas......along with many failed attemps to extinquish the fire. Youtube has video on everything, maybe not worth the drive from maryland.......
That sounds like a perfect place to drive water pipes down and generate electricity. Has anyone explored that option?
I took a tour in an old coal mine in Canada. we could hear the ocean above the mine. Couldn't wait to get out of there. I can't imagine laboring down in those mines.
