Underground In a Pennsylvania Coal Mine

While staying at Scotrun Thousand Trails in Pennsylvania, we were researching things to do. The internet is great, but we like to talk to the locals in the office and the brochure stand since there are often LOTS of things we find out about that don’t turn up online. When we found the No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum tour less than an hour away, we knew that was it.

This area is the heart of “coal country” and family on both my mom’s and dad’s sides worked in the coal mines before migrating to Florida. I’ve heard lots of stories throughout my childhood, so getting to walk through one of the oldest functioning mines led by someone raised in the area sounded like a great place to start, for us and for our son.

Their website shows days and hours vary with the season, so we called to confirm availability before heading out. It was a beautiful drive into the town of Lansford and parking was easy. We went inside to purchase our tickets for the next tour and explored the museum while we waited.

The museum contains many artifacts from within the mines and from the families that live there. This mine, like many had a “company store” and housing, which sounds convenient, until you realize they had catches with their paychecks. They were required to buy all their own supplies for both work and life, and pay rent and repairs, and that the company store inflated prices, so a worker was pretty much stuck working there. If something happened, they had to either provide another worker from the household or vacate within 24 hours. It was crazy!

The tour for the mine starts on a train car into the mountain and, surprisingly, is uphill. This allows the water dripping inside to drain out, but was also to make it easier on the donkeys pulling loaded cars. It was also a chilly 50 degrees inside, so we were glad to have brought layers! They do have jackets and hard hats to borrow if you forget your jacket!

We were dazzled with stories from miners and the life they lived underground. This particular mine is anthracite, one of the cleanest layers of coal, and is still used for many things today. We toured the mine for the better part of an hour, seeing the railways, supports, elevators, and hearing tales of kids working in the mines–some starting as young as 5 years old! We saw the hospital that was built into the mountain for this one and learned about their first aid and medical practices for incidents underground. It was very eye-opening and shows how far we’ve come in the last hundred years with working conditions. Even our teenager was captivated by the stories and facts he heard, asking many questions of our knowledgeable guide.

While there is no food on site on a daily basis, they do events and have a covered picnic pavilion if you bring lunch with you. We decided to enjoy lunch in town and found a great place called the Coal Miners Bar & Grill with good food, great service and reasonable prices.

There were other trolley tours and sites to see in the area, but we ran out of time, so be sure to look into those to learn more about the life of a coal miner and their families.

If you are able to get a coal mine tour in your schedule, we highly recommend it, especially this one!

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