The Coal Region is a region of

Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and ...

. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of

anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the high ...

in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons. The region is typically defined as comprising five Pennsylvania counties, Carbon County, Lackawanna County, Luzerne County, Northumberland County, and

Schuylkill County Schuylkill County (, ; Pennsylvania Dutch: Schulkill Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the heart of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the populat ...

. It is home to 910,716 people as of the 2010 census. The Coal Region is bordered by Berks,

Lehigh Lehigh may refer to: Places United States *Lehigh, Iowa *Lehigh, Kansas *Lehigh, Oklahoma *Lehigh, Barbour County, West Virginia *Lehigh, Wisconsin *Lehigh Acres, Florida *Lehigh Township (disambiguation) *Lehigh Valley, a region in eastern Penns ...

, and

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

Counties (including the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the n ...

) to its south;

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

and Dauphin Counties to its west; Wyoming County to its north; and

Warren County, New Jersey Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 109,632, representing an increase of 940 (0.9%) from the 108,692 residents counted at the 2010 census. The county bor ...

to its east.

History

The population of the Amerindian tribesmen of the

Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern ...

nation was reduced 90 percentsee facts cited and cites of American Heritage book of Indians (1961) in articles:

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

in three years of a plague of diseases and possibly war, opening up the Susquehanna Valley and all of Pennsylvania to settlement as the tribe was all but eliminated. Settlement in the region predates the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolu ...

. Both Delaware and Susquehannock power had been broken by disease and wars between Native American tribes before the British took over the Dutch and Swedish colonies and settled Pennsylvania. The first discovery of anthracite coal in the region occurred in 1762, and the first mine was established in 1775 near Pittston. In 1791, anthracite was discovered by a hunter atop Pisgah Ridge, and by 1792 the

Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a mining and transportation company headquartered in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, now known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. The company operated from 1818 until its dissolution in 1964 and played an early and i ...

began producing and shipping coal to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

via

Mauch Chunk Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe is lo ...

from the Southern Anthracite Field and

Summit Hill Summit Hill is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 3,034 at the 2010 census. Summit Hill has a storied history as the western terminus of the United States' second operational ...

, built atop the line between Schuylkill County and what would be renamed Carbon County. By 1818, customers fed up with the inconsistent mismanagement leased the Lehigh Coal Mining Company and founded the Lehigh Navigation Company: construction soon began for

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

; the locks and dams on the

Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pa ...

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade' ...

stretches, later known as the

Lehigh Canal The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The l ...

(finished in 1820). In 1822, the two companies merged as the

(LC&N), and by 1824 the company was shipping large volumes of coal down the Lehigh and Delaware Canals. Meanwhile, three brothers had similar ideas from near the turn of the century, and about the same time began mining coal in Carbondale, northeast of Scranton, but high enough to run a

gravity railroad A gravity railroad (American English) or gravity railway (British English) is a railroad on a slope that allows cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The speed of the cars is controlled by a br ...

to the Delaware River and feed

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

via the

Delaware and Hudson Canal The Delaware and Hudson Canal was the first venture of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which would later build the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Between 1828 and 1899, the canal's barges carried anthracite coal from the mines of northeast ...

. Pennsylvania began the Delaware Canal to connect the Lehigh Canal to Philadelphia and environs, while funding to build a canal across the Appalachians'

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. In 1827, LC&N built the second railroad in the country, a gravity railroad from

Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational railway, in the United States, of any substantial length to carry paying passenger ...

, running Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk. Population rapidly grew in the period following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

, with the expansion of the mining and railroad industries. English, Welsh, Irish and German immigrants formed a large portion of this increase, followed by Polish, Slovak, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Jewish, and Lithuanian immigrants. The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns possessing pronounced ethnic characters and cuisine. The anthracite mining industry loomed over the region until its decline in the 1950s. Strip mines and fires, most notably in Centralia, remain visible. Several violent incidences in the history of the U.S. labor movement occurred within the coal region as this was the location of the Lattimer Massacre and the home of the

Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a seri ...

. The

Knox Mine Disaster Knox may refer to: Places United States * Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky ** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox * Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...

in 1959 served as the death knell for deep mining which faded away in the mid 1960s;Karen Ahlquist, 2006. Chorus and Community. University of Illinois Press. p. 225. . almost all current anthracite mining is done via strip mining. Tours of underground mines can be taken in Ashland, Scranton, and Lansford, each of them also having museums dedicated to the mining industry. Also evident are patch towns, small villages affiliated with a particular mine. These towns were owned by the mining company. Though no longer company owned, many hamlets survive; one of them, the Eckley Miners' Village, is a museum and preserved historical town owned and administered by the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage. The commission cares for ...

, which seeks to restore patch towns to their original state.

Geography

The Coal Region lies north of the

and Berks County regions, south of the Endless Mountains, west of the

Pocono Mountains The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos , are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, ...

, and east of the Susquehanna Valley. The region lies at the northern edge of the

Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extendin ...

, and draws its name from the vast deposits of anthracite coal that can be found under several of the valleys in the region. The

Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...

is the most densely populated of these valleys, and contains the cities of

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the seco ...

, Greater Pittston, and

Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming Vall ...

. Hazleton and

Pottsville Pottsville usually refers to the city of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Pottsville may also refer to: Other communities *Pottsville, New South Wales, Australia *Pottsville, Arkansas, United States *Pottsville, Kentucky, United ...

are two of the larger cities in the southern portion of the region. The

and Schuylkill rivers both originate within the region, while the much larger

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

skirts the northern edge. Academics have made the distinction between the North Anthracite Coal Field and the South Anthracite Coal Field,Healey, Richard (2005) ''"The Breakers of the Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania", 'Vol. 1, Major breakers prior to 1902'.'' Dept of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth. ''"Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania" (implying there is a Southern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania)'' the lower region bearing the further classification Anthracite UplandsSevon, W. D., compiler, 2000, , Pennsylvania Geological Survey of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser., Map 13, scale 1:2,000,000. in physical geology. The Southern Coal Region can be further broken into the Southeastern and Southwestern Coal Regions, with the divide between the

Little Schuylkill River The Little Schuylkill River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Schuylkill River in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It rises south of McAdoo He ...

and easternmost tributary of the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It ...

with the additional divide line from the Lehigh River watershed extended through Barnesville the determining basins.

People

;Notable people from the Coal Region * Nick Adams, actor * Joe Amato, five-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion Drag Racer *

Gary Becker Gary Stanley Becker (; December 2, 1930 – May 3, 2014) was an American economist who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, and was a leader of ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

–winning economist (1992). *

David Bohm David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryPeat 1997, pp. 316-317 and who contributed ...

, quantum physicist * George Bretz (1842-1895), photographed the Coal Region * Les Brown, jazz musician * Bill Bufalino, attorney *

Ben Burnley Benjamin Jackson Burnley IV (born March 10, 1978) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the founder and frontman of the American rock band Breaking Benjamin. As the sole constant of the group, Burnley h ...

, lead singer of rock band

Breaking Benjamin Breaking Benjamin is an American rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, formed in 1999 by lead singer and guitarist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel. The first lineup of the band also included guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Ma ...

* P. J. Carlesimo, professional basketball coach, San Antonio Spurs *

Robert P. Casey Robert Patrick Casey Sr. (January 9, 1932 – May 30, 2000) was an American lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania who served as the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate for the ...

, former Governor of Pennsylvania * Bob Casey, Jr., U.S. Senator *

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the American West five times during the 183 ...

, artist * Jimmy Cefalo, professional football player, Miami Dolphins * Stan Coveleski, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member *

Anthony P. Damato Corporal Anthony Peter Damato (March 28, 1922 – February 20, 1944) was a United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his valor and sacrifice of life during World War II. On the night of February 19–20, 1944 on Eng ...

, United States Marine, Medal of Honor recipient * Jack Dolbin, professional football player, Denver Broncos *

Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peo ...

, jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, big band leader *

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...

, jazz trombonist, big band leader * Ellen Albertini Dow, actress, ''The Wedding Singer''s Rapping Granny *

Ham Fisher Hammond Edward "Ham" Fisher (September 24, 1900 (some sources indicate 1901) – December 27, 1955) was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist. He is best known for his long, popular run on '' Joe Palooka'', which was launched in 1930 and ...

, cartoonist *

Daniel J. Flood Daniel John Flood (November 26, 1903 – May 28, 1994) was an American attorney and politician, a flamboyant and long-serving Democratic United States Representative from Pennsylvania. First elected to the US House in 1944, he served continuously ...

, U.S. Congressman * Alexander Joseph Foley, United States Marine, Medal of Honor recipient *

Howard Gardner Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943) is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is cu ...

, scientist, author *

James M. Gavin James Maurice Gavin (March 22, 1907 – February 23, 1990), sometimes called "Jumpin' Jim" and "the jumping general", was a senior United States Army officer, with the rank of lieutenant general, who was the third Commanding General (CG) of the 8 ...

, Lieutenant General, United States Army * Jimmy Gownley, author, illustrator, cartoonist *

Tim Holden Thomas Timothy Holden (born March 5, 1957) is an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2013. Holden was the dean of the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation during ...

, former U.S. Congressman * Henry Hynoski, professional football player for the New York Giants * Jane Jacobs, sociologist, author * Russell Johnson, actor * John E. Jones III, judge *

George Joulwan George Alfred Joulwan (born November 16, 1939, Pottsville, Pennsylvania) is a retired United States Army general who served for 36 years. He finished his military career as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States European Command and NATO' ...

, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 1993 to 1997. * Paul E. Kanjorski, member of Congress * Jean Kerr, author *

Eddie Korbich Eddie Korbich (born November 6, 1960) is an American actor, singer and dancer. He was born in Washington, D.C. but grew up in Shamokin, Pennsylvania. Career 1980s He graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a B.F.A. in acting in 1983. In ...

, actor * Matthew Lesko, infomercial personality * Edward B. Lewis, Nobel Prize-winning scientist * Joe Maddon, manager of the Chicago Cubs *

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...

, film director, producer, and screenwriter * Richard Marcinko, Navy Seal, author *

Christy Mathewson Christopher Mathewson (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1925), nicknamed "Big Six", "the Christian Gentleman", "Matty", and "the Gentleman's Hurler", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher, who played 17 seasons with the New York Giants ...

, professional baseball player * Francis T. McAndrew, Psychologist/Professor/Author * Mary McDonnell, actress * Gerry McNamara, college basketball player, Syracuse University * Jason Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor * Mike Munchak, professional football coach and former professional football player *

Jozef Murgaš Jozef Murgaš ( English Joseph Murgas) (17 February 1864 – 11 May 1929) was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter and Roman Catholic priest. He contributed to wireless telegraphy and helped in the development of mobile communica ...

, radio pioneer * Amedeo Obici, founder of the Planters Peanuts Company * John O'Hara, author * Jim O'Neill, former baseball player * Steve O'Neill, former baseball player *

Jack Palance Jack Palance ( ; born Volodymyr Palahniuk ( uk, Володимир Палагню́к); February 18, 1919 – November 10, 2006) was an American actor known for playing tough guys and villains. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, all fo ...

, actor *

William Daniel Phillips William Daniel Phillips (born November 5, 1948) is an American physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1997, with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. Biography Phillips was born to William Cornelius Phillips of Juniata, Pennsylva ...

, Nobel Prize-winning scientist * Joe Pisarcik, former NFL quarterback * Darryl Ponicsan, author, screenwriter * Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor * Paul W. Richards, former astronaut *

Conrad Richter Conrad Michael Richter (October 13, 1890 – October 30, 1968) was an American novelist whose lyrical work is concerned largely with life on the American frontier in various periods. His novel '' The Town'' (1950), the last story of his trilogy '' ...

, author * Hugh Rodham, father of Hillary Rodham Clinton *

Tim Ruddy Tim Ruddy (born April 27, 1972) is a former American football offensive lineman. He was born in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. Tim Ruddy was a center for the Miami Dolphins from 1994 to 2003. Tim went on to acting and writing as well as working on th ...

, former professional football player,

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pl ...

Victor Schertzinger Victor L. Schertzinger (April 8, 1888 – October 26, 1941) was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include '' Paramount on Parade'' (co-director, 1930), ''Something to Sing About'' ( 1937) with James ...

, composer, film director, film producer and screenwriter *

William Scranton William Warren Scranton (July 19, 1917 – July 28, 2013) was an American Republican Party politician and diplomat. Scranton served as the 38th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967, and as United States Ambassador to the United Nations fr ...

, former Governor of Pennsylvania and 1964 U.S. Presidential candidate * William Scranton, III, former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania * B. F. Skinner, psychologist, radical behaviorist, Harvard professor, and author *

Jimmy Spencer Jimmy Spencer may refer to: * Jimmy Spencer (American football) (born 1969), American NFL cornerback * Jimmy Spencer ( game design) (born 1990), American game designer * Jimmy Spencer (footballer) (born 1991), English football player * Jimmy Spen ...

, former NASCAR driver and current TV analyst * Bob Sura, former NBA basketball player *

Charley Trippi Charles Louis Trippi (December 14, 1921 – October 19, 2022) was an American professional football player for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) from 1947 to 1955. Although primarily a running back, his versatility a ...

, played for Pittston Patriots, NFL Hall of Fame * John Anthony Walker, spy for the Soviet Union * Ed Walsh, former professional baseball player, Chicago White Sox

References

External links

Coal Mine Region - The Carpathian ConnectionPennsylvania's Northern Coal FieldA collection of nostalgia and regionalisms from the Anthracite Coal Region of PennsylvaniaAbandoned Anthracite Mines in PA"A Jewel In the Crown of Old King Coal Eckley Miners' Village" by Tony Wesolowsky, ''Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine'', Volume XXII, Number 1 - Winter 1996 A website with extensive detail on and a virtual tour of Eckley
{{Pennsylvania, state=collapsed 01 Coal mining regions in the United States Mining in Pennsylvania Regions of Pennsylvania Carbon County, Pennsylvania Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

History

Geography

People

See also

References

External links