00:19 - This was the heart of the coal mining industry in Pennsylvania near a reaction we get

00:23 - from a lot of people when they come here as

00:25 - their grandfather or father worked in a mine

00:28 - and they had no idea of the conditions that they actually worked in

00:31 - till they see it.

00:33 - My name is Edmund died linger and I'm the mine foreman here.

00:46 - Lackawanna coal mine tour was actually created in

00:50 - the seventies and I want to remind to r nineteen eighty

00:53 - but it's part of a larger mine

00:55 - that was in operation since eighteen sixty

00:58 - and there was some.

01:00 - State representative

01:01 - and a senator from this area thought it would be a good idea to invest government

01:05 - money in opening it as a mine tour so to be a historical site

01:09 - it's

01:10 - in the middle of mcdade park

01:12 - the southeast of Scranton

01:13 - that started out

01:14 - as active coal mine.

01:17 - In eighteen sixty it was run by the moffat coal company

01:21 - from nineteen fifty nine to nineteen sixty

01:23 - proportionate you'll see on the tour

01:25 - what kind of coal was mined here it was anthracite

01:28 - it was used mostly for heating back then some of it was ship but steel mills

01:32 - but the majority of it was heating.

01:35 - Shape the lives of the community because it was one of the largest producer minds

01:38 - here employed over eight hundred men for the community

01:41 - daily life at a minor he get up early in the morning

01:44 - for four thirty

01:45 - five o'clock he'd be going into mine

01:47 - workers

01:48 - ten twelve hour shift or whatever rework the commodity mine

01:52 - and go home.

01:53 - The different jobs in mind you had your mind foreman

01:56 - were examined of mine you had your miners who mine coal

02:01 - you had a miners assistant who helped the mine or mine Nicole had a nipper boy who

02:06 - sat inside of what's called an airlock the open a door

02:09 - to a lotta mules and the coal cars that go through

02:11 - you had a mule driver it used to lead mules

02:15 - and then you had various occupations on the top

02:18 - like

02:18 - dumpers

02:19 - that would dump into the temple

02:21 - yet slate pickers in

02:23 - the breaker

02:24 - back then

02:25 - it

02:25 - Really wasn't profitable because you had to buy all your

02:27 - supplies and everything came from the company store so

02:30 - your paycheck you are turning back over to call me

02:33 - nine eighty percent of it

02:35 - my favorite part of working here is

02:37 - being able to transmit the history of the coal

02:39 - mining beans I did it for over forty years

02:42 - to the people who don't understand that have never actually seen a coal mine

02:45 - and have no recollection of the actual history of

02:48 - the area

02:49 - the most surprising part I would say is.

02:53 - When they get to see the actual chambers what they looked like and

02:57 - like

02:57 - Arlo veins how to minors actually had to work on her hands and knees

03:01 - the most important part I always try to stress when I do the tours

03:05 - is like the nipper boy and a mule boy.

03:07 - A lot of people think that

03:08 - those kids just worked in mind that they wanted to

03:12 - most of those kids work in mind because her

03:13 - family lived in what was called a company house

03:16 - that was owned by the coal company

03:18 - and their father was probably killed in the mine.

03:21 - So one of them how to take his place in a mine

03:24 - otherwise the family would be evicted from the house

03:26 - having this mind tour hair helps

03:29 - especially younger students like you get a lot of schools and i.

03:32 - Had no idea coal mining even took place

03:35 - and i.

04:05 - Kind of work I do here on a daily basis is go down and examine the entire core area.

04:10 - Make sure everything is safe make sure there's

04:13 - no toxic gases before any tours go down

04:15 - the tours.

04:17 - You get into mind car you go to the bottom.

04:20 - You'll get out and then you'll walk through.

04:22 - Two different veins and a rock tunnel.

04:25 - The cd exhibits it's approximately a half mile walk round trip

04:29 - back then you would have went down a straight vertical shaft in a cage.

04:33 - Compared to today where you follow the mine

04:35 - tour

04:36 - mine car sorta just like a boss.

04:39 - Because that's what it's called it's a portal boss

04:41 - has seats that sit

04:42 - at crossways in it.

04:44 - It was actually used

04:45 - in bituminous mining where they drove that vehicle right into the mines

04:50 - and then it was fabricated for to put on here for the mine tour.

04:56 - Okay we're going to be boarding the mine car my car is lowered and hoisted

05:01 - wider mine hoist operator he's an

05:03 - oyster house out there

05:05 - he has full control of the mine car for the

05:07 - entire distance.

05:09 - This is actually a sixty one ninety portal bus

05:12 - it was used to transport mine minors and it was retrofitted from self propelled

05:17 - to being able to use with a hoist

05:19 - and a hoist cable to be lowered

05:21 - the hoist operator will listen on the radio

05:23 - we have to stop anywhere

05:25 - all it

05:26 - instructions are given through a two way radio back to the hoist operator

05:30 - he has an indicator dial up there

05:31 - that he knows exactly where my car is in a slow nope

05:35 - and nowhere to stop but at the bottom.

05:37 - Once we get to the bottom

05:39 - will open the doors up and leave the tourists out

05:42 - okay if we're ready let's head on down I'll open the

05:44 - doors up keep your hard hats on at all times in the car

05:48 - and and.

06:12 - Okay we have arrived at the bottom of the tour now.

06:15 - We'll be walking approximately half mile round trip through the exhibits

06:18 - and each exhibit it'll be explained in detail what they represent

06:23 - and how they pertain to mining back in those days

06:25 - we are now three hundred feet

06:27 - straight down below the surface we came thirteen

06:30 - hundred and fifty feet by re rail in the car

06:33 - once you start walking this way you're going to see the

06:35 - Clark level gangway.

06:37 - Which is what most of the tour is on before you get to the rock tunnel.

06:41 - Will stop off to the side here there's a set of boards explaining

06:45 - the lack a wanna basin

06:46 - the coal seams a rock stratas and how to coal was mined.

06:50 - We got into

06:51 - tour car

06:53 - we came down what's known as the one ninety slope.

06:56 - Ended the Clark bed and we're right here.

07:00 - This is a diagram of high anthracite mining was done.

07:03 - This would represent a slope

07:05 - we just came down

07:07 - and then they always carried a second

07:09 - entry alongside of it for air circulation.

07:12 - They would draw intake air down

07:15 - and

07:16 - these are actually stopped off now but

07:18 - the air would go to the furthest point into

07:21 - mine up through and return back out through the

07:23 - fan on the surface

07:25 - that today ventilated them.

07:27 - All these black blocks you see

07:29 - are box of coal or what was known as pillars

07:32 - that were left in the mine.

07:34 - At those colors were take it out

07:36 - you wouldn't be in his mind tour because the

07:38 - roof would be collapsed all these props you see

07:41 - there are only early warning signs that let a minor know if it's taken wait anywhere.

07:47 - Now what the miners will do once they had the gangway started

07:50 - they drive

07:51 - twin companion chambers up

07:53 - and connect them with what's known as a cross-cut.

07:56 - The circulate the air

07:58 - then they drive another sixty feet

08:00 - and drive another companion

08:02 - then they would drive to chambers.

08:05 - All the way up to the top header and

08:07 - below the fan

08:09 - and that would be continued all the way to the extended or property line of how

08:12 - Florida mine was being developed.

08:15 - Now on the lack a wanna base and here we have several veins.

08:18 - Were on the Clark bed

08:20 - allowed beyond through the rock tunnel to see the number one and number two dunmore.

08:24 - The rock bed got it's name because it was a

08:27 - very poor quality vein.

08:29 - That a lot of rock and what they called boney in it.

08:32 - The big bed was named a big bed because it was a thicker same a coal

08:36 - in the valley.

08:37 - The new county bed was named after lack a wanna county

08:40 - because it's the newest county in Pennsylvania.

08:43 - The Clark bed was named after.

08:46 - One of the rich people that invested his name was George Clarke he invested in the

08:49 - original nineteen six or eighteen sixty mine.

08:53 - The continental mine

08:55 - and it John Moores were named after lord dunmore back in England.

09:00 - Now the original mine

09:01 - which was started in eighteen sixty

09:03 - was a vertical shaft that was sunk down through all seams of coal to the bottom

09:08 - and would have a double cage onder hoisted the coal and the men

09:11 - out of the shaft.

09:13 - This section that you're going to see undermined tour

09:16 - was developed from

09:18 - nineteen fifty nine nineteen sixty five

09:21 - where they come in and develop this area above water level.

09:25 - This red line here indicates roughly the water level

09:28 - through the basin if you were to cut open the basin and look at it like a canoe

09:33 - it looks like a canoe full of water

09:35 - this is one or two chambers that still existing

09:38 - from the eighteen sixty mine

09:40 - was developed from a lower gangway below us

09:42 - here and it was driven straight across here.

09:46 - And the chamber continues up to another gangway of bogus

09:49 - about four hundred feet up

09:51 - it is there's what's called a crib block

09:53 - it's six by six railroad ties that are interconnected

09:57 - there use the wide areas like an intersection in the roadway

10:01 - where the width is in excess it creates a solid column to help support.

10:06 - Yeah this is original to the mine

10:08 - in this area to mind where it's developed

10:10 - they had what was called an electric motor car

10:12 - you'd hear that motor car coming in and out rattling on the rails with the coal cars.

10:17 - You'd hear compressed air going through an

10:19 - air drills running a drill the coal

10:22 - and you'd hear blasting

10:24 - and this is where we explain to them about the gases.

10:27 - That a mine has they have methane gas which is

10:29 - lighter than air that would hang near the top.

10:33 - Carbon dioxide air which relating along the bottom

10:36 - you'd use a flame safety lamp to check for that

10:38 - he'd hold a flame safety lamp up if the flame turned

10:41 - blue and got bigger you knew he had methane gas

10:44 - if you put the flame safety lamp near the bottom

10:46 - the flame would diminish or go out you know he had carbon dioxide

10:50 - but there was another gas.

10:52 - That yeah actually needed to canary

10:55 - to check and that was carbon monoxide

10:57 - there were a lot of miners were dying and he couldn't

10:59 - find out what was wrong that was killing them

11:02 - because they were using the safety lamps that I know it wasn't methane that wasn't

11:05 - carbon dioxide or oxygen deficiency.

11:09 - Well a scientists figured out because they

11:10 - were red faced and that it was carbon monoxide.

11:14 - So they start like around nineteen o seven they started taking canaries in the mine

11:18 - cause a canary breeze like one hundred times faster than a human they could

11:23 - sense this gas ride a ways

11:25 - and they

11:25 - start getting wobbly fall off the perch or whatever

11:28 - then they knew they had carbon monoxide gas they'd leave the at the face entry.

11:33 - Okay this is our tube connection up to the surface it

11:35 - goes two hundred and seventy feet up through this borehole

11:38 - it's connected to our ventilation fan on a surface

11:42 - that's actually ventilating a Tor area

11:44 - but it also serves a second purpose we have an

11:47 - escape capsule on top that we can lower down through

11:50 - the hoist the tourist outta here in the event of a hoist failure.

11:54 - This is our fall area

11:56 - it's

11:56 - basically a geological fault in the earth

11:59 - wherever you have these

12:00 - fault areas it's a lot more dangerous work and

12:03 - which is why we symbolize the minor being trapped here

12:06 - whenever your work these areas the roof is more unstable

12:10 - yeah

12:11 - one hundred times more chance of a collapse than

12:13 - you do one hundred a normal roof in the mine strata

12:16 - this is the electric motor car I spoke about earlier

12:18 - this is what they're used to transport coal cars with

12:21 - it had an arm on the front that

12:23 - contacted that electrical wire

12:25 - throughout the mine you'll see pipe sticking down those pipes all had insulators on

12:30 - there was a copper conductor ran throughout the mine

12:33 - and this

12:33 - what's used to power power it

12:35 - ran a two hundred and fifty volt DC

12:38 - so the miners had to be careful at all times that they

12:40 - didn't get near that because that was energized at all times

12:43 - and this is the

12:44 - mantra card at the miners would have come down in

12:47 - with a wooden seats in and they were adjusted for the

12:49 - pitcher to slope so you'd be sitting level coming down.

12:53 - They didn't have that Cadillac like weekend downing.

12:56 - Know this is a machine it's called a jalopy or a pan conveyor

13:00 - this is what they would have used to load the coal once they blasted it

13:03 - they throw the bigger pieces on and shovel the fine coal on

13:06 - this chain would take it up and loaded into the coal cars

13:09 - and a miners in order to mine the coal

13:12 - had a blast

13:13 - like in the old days this was what they would

13:14 - have used it was a hand brace and a bay bit.

13:18 - Would it actually have to put that against her chest

13:21 - and crank the holes in by hand.

13:24 - Then as they started bringing electricity into the mine

13:27 - they used

13:28 - electric drills

13:29 - but they're not heavy it takes two men to handle them

13:32 - and these are the steels which are much heavier

13:34 - but they drill so many holes

13:36 - in what's called a face

13:38 - and I didn't have to put dynamite sticks in.

13:41 - They would tempt them with a wooden tamp and rod

13:44 - and then they'd hook all are blasting lines together.

13:48 - Take the role a liar

13:49 - and a reel it out

13:50 - to wherever they were going to blast from

13:52 - glaad around the corner.

13:55 - They'd hook it up to this blasting battery.

13:58 - Pull it up.

13:59 - Push it down

14:01 - and

14:04 - that's what it would sound like in a minor would have to count those

14:08 - because if he had ten holes drill

14:09 - and he only heard nine explosions

14:12 - he knew he had a shot didn't go off.

14:14 - Then he'd have to take what's called a hook.

14:18 - And reach inside that hole and try to pull out an exploded shot out

14:22 - and hope it didn't go off while he was doing it

14:24 - this machine is called a shake or shoot

14:26 - when it was running these pans would shake back and forth they'd shovel the coal on

14:30 - and it would keep shaking the cold and entered a loaded coal core

14:34 - these were used where the area was thin

14:36 - and the pitch was f blatter to get the coal from

14:39 - up worthy were working at the face of the chamber

14:41 - down to the coal car to load it

14:43 - this was one of the original mind phones that they would have use.

14:46 - This was the year receiver for the earpiece.

14:50 - Spoken a mouthpiece in each area had a

14:51 - designated ring to surface would have been one.

14:55 - You would have rang at one if you want to mind form.

15:00 - That was two.

15:01 - He listened and you talked in there.

15:04 - I can show you what light the miners would have

15:06 - how to work with when they were actually working.

15:13 - Hmm hmm

15:36 - this is a mule and the mule driver hooked at his coal car this is how they would have

15:40 - moved to coal from the eighteen sixty continental mine

15:43 - instead of using an electric motor

15:45 - now these tracks would have been drove on a little bit of a grade the mules never

15:49 - actually pull hair le loaded coal cars

15:52 - the coal cars when they were loaded actually rolled on the track and a mule just

15:55 - slowed the car down till it got to the bottom

15:58 - mule drivers job

15:59 - was to follow after the car and he carried what was called a sprague

16:04 - was appointed stick like this

16:06 - what he'd have to do if that coal car would start running too fast

16:10 - so it wouldn't run over a mule he'd have to run back alongside the car

16:14 - and jam that into the spoke at a wheel a slow car to stop it.

16:19 - Because if that

16:20 - mule got hit by that coal car

16:22 - that boy lose his job because of the calorie mind that mula was a piece of machinery

16:28 - it was more important to them than that boy's life was

16:31 - there's a lot of nipper will or drivers lost her hands.

16:35 - If they miss

16:36 - they got broken bones or they fell in front of the car and got raw over.

16:40 - This is our Dipper boy he'd sit in here between

16:42 - these two doors which is called an airlock

16:45 - the airlock were placed into minds at strategic points to get the airflow in the air

16:49 - currents to go to directions where they needed them

16:52 - to ventilate where they were mining coal

16:54 - now his job was to sit here and he could hear a mule

16:57 - and a coal car common

16:59 - he'd get up and open his set of doors and a lot of mule and Nicole car to come in

17:03 - close them doors and any good down and open those doors

17:06 - and let the mule and a cold car go through and

17:08 - that's was his job for ten twelve hours a day.

17:12 - He sat in the dark with a little wick lamp

17:14 - about the candle power what that light has

17:17 - the lunch pail he has it's a lie lunch pail on the bottom and the top

17:21 - has like a a metal cork comes out you can fill it

17:23 - with hot liquid either like a hot coffee or hot tea

17:26 - and he ought to be very careful if he does offer didn't hear the mule common.

17:31 - The doors that he would have sat behind was one big door.

17:35 - A wooden door maybe sixteen foot wide

17:38 - and at that mule hit that door to sling back and crush him in the rib

17:41 - the nippers were usually

17:43 - nine to twelve.

17:45 - Once I started getting up been like twelve thirteen

17:47 - years old and they'd put them on as a mule driver

17:50 - the breaker boys were

17:52 - younger they could be as young as five six years old.

17:55 - As long as they can pixelate

17:57 - or is that we're.

17:58 - Sixteen maybe seventeen that it was a second income for the family but all these

18:03 - younger kids were into mind just because

18:05 - they had to work a job either on a break or on top

18:08 - or down here in order to stay living in a comfy house

18:11 - this was what was call the fire boss's office

18:14 - he would go back in the morning before the

18:15 - miners came down go in and inspect this area

18:18 - then he come back and fill out his logs

18:20 - with anything he found hazardous conditions or whatever

18:24 - and as the miners came down or as a pegboard here.

18:27 - There's a peg behind her name they'd have to check in or check out every time they

18:30 - pass this point that was the record keeping

18:33 - track of who was back here and who wasn't.

18:36 - In the event of a mine accident or a mine fire or

18:38 - whatever they knew precisely what miners were back here.

18:47 - First of all this is one of the original cars

18:49 - from the continental mind from eighteen sixty.

18:53 - Now if this was your coal car and you loaded it your pay would actually get doc

18:56 - because the calories had a rule of thumb you how to put your elbow in a car

19:00 - and that's how round full the car had to be when it got to the top to be dumped.

19:05 - In a way I knew whose car was.

19:07 - Each minor had their own tag with a number that

19:09 - they'd have to place on the back of the car.

19:12 - Okay I'm going to turn out the lights and I'm going to show you

19:15 - where

19:15 - anthracite coal got it's name black diamond from.

19:20 - If you look at the coal

19:21 - it sparkles like diamonds under a light.

19:30 - This is the end of the mine tour.

19:32 - When this last cutter Cole was fired from his face and shipped to the surface it was

19:36 - the last anthracite coal that was mined this area back in nineteen sixty five

19:40 - there was no anthracite underground mining after that point

19:43 - at the end of the tour we're going to give you

19:45 - a laugh I want a coal mine minor certificate

19:48 - and on the back of it it has a pay schedule for a continental mine

19:51 - for nineteen o two tells you what they were paid

19:54 - if you want to come visit us here at lack a wanna

19:56 - coal mine were located in the middle of mcdade park

19:59 - at Scranton

20:00 - it's ten dollars an adult eight dollars for children

20:03 - and we do group rates of twenty or more.

20:07 - By reservation.

20:08 - One up.