created: December 8, 2001
The Anthracite Mining Museum is located in Schuylkill County's Ashland, Pennsylvania. Although it is not as large or comprehensive as the Anthracite Heritage Museum, it is an important adjunct of its larger cousin. It is located next door to the privately owned and operated Pioneer Tunnel Mine, the second of the Anthracite Region's underground mine tours.
Schuylkill County was at the center of the semi-mythical "Mollie Maguire" episode in the Anthracite Region's history.
One of the displays in the museum, this is an early example of telephone communications systems that allowed underground mine officials to keep in touch with the surface.
This sign stands at the entrance to the Pioneer Tunnel Mine tour. A relic of the consolidation of the Reading Company's coal mining activities in the Schuylkill Coal Field, it came from the Locust Summit Coal Breaker, one of two massive breakers that replaced many smaller breakers throughout the field during the 1930s. The other "big" breaker, St. Nicholas, still stands west of Mahanoy City.
Phototography of underground scenes is extremely difficult, since the pitch-black surroundings absorb camera flashes. This scene from inside the Pioneer Tunnel shows some of the basic tools of the Anthracite coal miner.
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