Now that’s a deep hole. This is allegedly the largest pothole in the world, though I haven’t seen anything official confirming this. The pothole was found accidentally in 1884 when miners were blasting underground. The pothole was cleared out and was initially a privately owned tourist attraction. It’s...
In August of 1963, three miners were stuck 330 feet below the ground when the Sheppton mine caved in. Two of the miners stuck together and waited two weeks for rescue, initially eating tree bark and sucking water out of the bark for survival. Within a week, holes...
The Old Jail Museum in Jim Thorpe is almost like any other old restored prison museum I’ve been to. Almost. Sure it’s got its display of artifacts from when the jail was in use. Sure it’s got cells you can enter. And it’s even got a solitary confinement...
Hidden in between Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation and Swatara State Park in northern Lebanon County are the ruins of the town of Rausch Gap, once a mining and railroad town. The basics are up on that sign right there, so I’m not going to reiterate all of...
The term “coal baron” exists for a reason. In 1959, the owners of Knox Mine got greedy and had workers dig within 5-6 feet of the Susquehanna’s river bed; 30 feet is the normal stopping distance. The river broke through the thin rock layer and immediately began to...
Stockton Mine was like any other anthracite mine in northeastern PA until one early morning in 1869, when some of the ground above the mine suddenly collapsed. A few homes were swallowed up, and nobody inside had time to escape. The rift kept growing, and the buildings that...
I had read on a number of online forums that Carbondale had 3 fires burning underneath it at once. Having already been to both Centralia and Laurel Run, I was quite interested to check it out. The results were pretty disappointing, but at least I did find a...
With all the attention Centralia gets, it’s no wonder many people are unaware there are quite a few mine fires still going in Pennsylvania, many of those not being too far from Centralia. One such is the Red Ash fire in Laurel Run. Although not as noticeable or...
