Coal Region
Encyclopedia
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania is a geographic region of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton and Carbondale....
in the central Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
comprising Lackawanna
Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 213,295 people, 86,218 households, and 55,783 families residing in the county. The population density was 465 people per square mile . There were 95,362 housing units at an average density of 208 per square mile...
, Luzerne
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
- Demographics :As of the 2010 census, the county was 90.7% White, 3.4% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 3.3% were of some other race, and 1.5% were two or more races. 6.7% of the population was of Hispanic or Latino ancestry...
, Columbia
Columbia County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 64,151 people, 24,915 households, and 16,568 families residing in the county. The population density was 132 people per square mile . There were 27,733 housing units at an average density of 57 per square mile...
, Carbon
Carbon County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 58,802 people, 23,701 households, and 16,424 families residing in the county. The population density was 154 people per square mile . There were 30,492 housing units at an average density of 80 per square mile...
, Schuylkill
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
-Notable people:*Boxing heavyweight great Muhammad Ali had his training camp in Deer Lake.*Charles Justin Bailey, commanding general of the 81st Division in World War I, was born in Tamaqua on June 21, 1859....
, Northumberland
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania
There were 38,835 households out of which 27.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.40% were married couples living together, 9.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.10% were non-families. 30.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.50% had...
, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Dauphin County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is one of the three counties comprising the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010 census, the population was 268,100. The county includes the city of Harrisburg, which has served as the state capital...
counties.
The region's population was 890,121 people as of the most recent census. Many of the names in the region are from the Delaware Indians or Lenape
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
s and Susquehanna native American Indians. The region is home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
found in the Americas, with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons (PA DEP Website). It is these deposits that provide the region with its nickname. The discovery of anthracite coal was first made in the Schuylkill County by Hunter, Necho Allen.
Geography
The Region lies north of the Lehigh ValleyLehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...
and Berks County Regions, south of the Endless Mountains
Endless Mountains
The Endless Mountains are a chain of mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania. The Endless Mountains region includes Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Northern Wayne, and Wyoming Counties.-History and geography:...
, west of the Pocono Mountains, and east of the Susquehanna Valley, though the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
passes through the Wyoming Valley
Wyoming Valley
Wyoming Valley is a region of northeastern Pennsylvania. As a metropolitan area, it is also known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, after its principal cities, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre....
located within the coal region in the central Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
. The Wyoming Valley is the most densely populated area of the region, containing the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
. Hazleton
Hazleton, Pennsylvania
Hazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, an increase of 8.6% from the 2000 census count .-Greater Hazleton:...
and Pottsville
Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Pottsville is the only city in and the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 15,549 at the 2000 census. The city lies along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, north-west of Philadelphia...
are two of the larger cities in the southern portion of the region. The headwaters of the Lehigh
Lehigh River
The Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware River, is a river located in eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. Part of the Lehigh, along with a number of its tributaries, is designated a Pennsylvania Scenic River by the state's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources...
and Schuylkill
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
Rivers both lie within the region.
History and miscellany
Settlement in the region predates the American Revolution, the discovery of the anthracite coal for which it is named occurred in 1762, and the first mine was established in 1775 near Pittston, PA. Population rapidly grew in the period following the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, 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 and Lithuanian immigrants. The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns possessing pronounced ethnic characters and ethnic food.
The anthracite mining industry loomed over much of the region until its decline in the 1950s. Strip mines and evidence of mine fire
Mine fire
A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smouldering of a coal deposit, often in a coal mine. Such fires have economic, social and ecological impacts...
s such as the Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia, Pennsylvania
Centralia is a borough and ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005, 9 in 2007, and 10 in 2010, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962...
mine fire are still visible throughout much of the area. Several of the more violent incidences in the history of the US labor movement occurred within the coal region as this was the location of the Lattimer Massacre
Lattimer massacre
The Lattimer massacre was the violent deaths of 19 unarmed striking immigrant anthracite coal miners at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1897. The miners, mostly of Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian and German ethnicity, were shot and killed by a Luzerne County sheriff's...
and the home of the Molly Maguires
Molly Maguires
The Molly Maguires were members of an Irish-American secret society, whose members consisted mainly of coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a...
.
The Knox Mine Disaster
Knox Mine disaster
The Knox Mine disaster was a mining accident that took place in Port Griffith, a town in Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania, near Pittston, on January 22, 1959....
in 1959 essentially served as the death knell for deep mining within the region; almost all current anthracite mining is done via strip mining. Tours of underground mines can be taken in Ashland
Ashland, Pennsylvania
Ashland is a borough in Schuylkill county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, 12 miles northwest of Pottsville. The Borough lies in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania. Settled in 1850, Ashland was incorporated in 1857, and was named for Henry Clay's estate near Lexington, Kentucky....
, Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
, and Lansford
Lansford, Pennsylvania
Lansford is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, located northwest of Allentown and 9 miles south of Hazleton. Settled in 1845, Lansford was incorporated in 1876. In 1900, 4,888 people lived in Lansford; in 1910, 8,321 people inhabited it, and in 1940, 8,710 residents called Lansford home....
, each of them also having museums dedicated to the mining industry.
Also evident are "patch towns", small villages affiliated with a particular mine. These small towns, with populations typically less than 500, were solely owned by the mine; the resident miners were tenants, the general store was owned by the mining concern, and police were mine employees whose most prominent charge was to protect the coal from theft by the residents. Though no longer company owned, many such hamlets survive; one of them, the Eckley Miners' Village, is a historical park owned and administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage...
, which seeks to restore patch towns to their original state.
Famous people from the Coal Region
- Nick Adams - Actor.
- Joe BidenJoe BidenJoseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
- U.S. Vice President. - David BohmDavid BohmDavid Joseph Bohm FRS was an American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy, neuropsychology, and the Manhattan Project.-Youth and college:...
- quantum physicist. - George BretzGeorge Bretz (photographer)George M. Bretz was an American photographer who is best known for his photographs of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Coal Region and its coal miners....
(1842-1895) -- photographed the Coal Region - Ben Burnley - lead singer of rock band Breaking BenjaminBreaking BenjaminBreaking Benjamin is an American rock band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, currently consisting of Benjamin Burnley and Chad Szeliga. The band has released four studio albums to date and a greatest hits album that was released on August 16, 2011. The group initially went on indefinite hiatus due...
. - P. J. Carlesimo - professional basketball coach, San Antonio SpursSan Antonio SpursThe San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....
. - Robert P. CaseyRobert P. CaseyRobert Patrick "Bob" Casey, Sr. was an American politician from Pennsylvania. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd Governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995...
- former Governor of Pennsylvania. - Bob Casey, Jr.Bob Casey, Jr.Robert Patrick "Bob" Casey, Jr. is the senior U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and a member of the Democratic Party. He previously served as Pennsylvania Treasurer, and Pennsylvania Auditor General. He is the son of former Governor Bob Casey, Sr..He is the first Democrat elected to a full term in...
- U.S. Senator. - George CatlinGeorge CatlinGeorge Catlin was an American painter, author and traveler who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West.-Early years:...
- artist. - Jimmy CefaloJimmy CefaloJames Carmen Cefalo, , is an American sportscaster, game show host and former professional American football wide receiver.-High school:Cefalo attended Pittston Area High School in Pittston, Pennsylvania...
- Professional football player, Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... - Stan CoveleskiStan CoveleskiStanley Anthony Coveleski was a Major League Baseball player during the 1910s and 1920s. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969....
- Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member - Anthony P. DamatoAnthony P. DamatoCorporal Anthony Peter Damato was a United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his valor and sacrifice of life during World War II...
- United States Marine, Medal of HonorMedal of HonorThe Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
recipient. - Jack DolbinJack DolbinJohn Tice "Jack" Dolbin is a former professional American football wide receiver who played five seasons for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League. He started for the Broncos in Super Bowl XII . He is considered one of the most successful players that surged from the World Football...
, Professional football player, Denver BroncosDenver BroncosThe Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. - Jimmy DorseyJimmy DorseyJames "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
- jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, big band leader. - Tommy DorseyTommy DorseyThomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
- jazz trombonist, big band leader. - Ellen Albertini DowEllen Albertini DowEllen Albertini Dow is an American character actress. She often portrays feisty old ladies and is perhaps best known as the rapping grandmother who performs in the feature film The Wedding Singer...
- actress, The Wedding SingerThe Wedding SingerThe Wedding Singer is a 1998 romantic comedy film written by Tim Herlihy and directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler as a wedding singer in the 1980s and Drew Barrymore as a waitress with whom he falls in love....
's Rapping Granny - Ham FisherHam FisherHammond Edward Fisher was an American comic strip writer and cartoonist who signed his work Ham Fisher...
- cartoonist. - Les BrownLes Brown (bandleader)Les Brown, Sr. and the Band of Renown are a big band that began in the late 1930s, initially as the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils that Brown led while a student at Duke University. He was the first president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences...
- jazz musician - Daniel J. FloodDaniel J. FloodDaniel John "Dan" Flood was a flamboyant and long-serving Democratic United States Representative from Pennsylvania. He was censured for bribery and resigned from the House in 1980.-Early life and career:...
- U.S. Congressman. - Alexander Joseph FoleyAlexander J. FoleySergeant Alexander Joseph Foley was a member of the United States Marine Corps who was awarded the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for having distinguished himself during the Boxer Rebellion....
- United States Marine, Medal of HonorMedal of HonorThe Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
recipient. - Howard GardnerHoward GardnerHoward Earl Gardner is an American developmental psychologist who is a professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero and author of over twenty books translated into thirty languages. Since 1995, he has...
- scientist, author. - James M. GavinJames M. GavinJames Maurice "Jumpin' Jim" Gavin was a prominent Lieutenant General in the United States Army during World War II...
- Lieutenant General, United States Army. - Jane JacobsJane JacobsJane Jacobs, was an American-Canadian writer and activist with primary interest in communities and urban planning and decay. She is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities , a powerful critique of the urban renewal policies of the 1950s in the United States...
- sociologist, author. - Russell JohnsonRussell JohnsonRussell David Johnson is an American television and film actor best known as "The Professor" on the CBS television sitcom Gilligan's Island...
- actor. - John E. Jones IIIJohn E. Jones IIIJohn Edward Jones III is an American lawyer and jurist from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A Republican, Jones was appointed by President George W. Bush as federal judge on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in February 2002 and was unanimously confirmed by...
- born in Pottsville in 1955, presided over the landmark Intelligent design case, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in 2005. - Paul E. KanjorskiPaul E. KanjorskiPaul E. Kanjorski is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1985 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Hazleton, as well as most of the Poconos....
- Member of Congress. - Jean KerrJean KerrJean Kerr was an American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary...
- author. - Eddie KorbichEddie KorbichEddie Korbich is an actor, singer, dancer. He was born in Washington, D.C. but grew up in Shamokin, Pennsylvania.-1980s:He graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a B.F.A...
- actor. - Matthew LeskoMatthew LeskoMatthew Lesko is an American author, self-proclaimed federal grant researcher, and infomercial personality. He has authored over 20 reference books telling people how to get "free" money from the United States government...
- infomercial personality. - Edward B. LewisEdward B. Lewis- External links :* *...
- Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning scientist. - Joe MaddonJoe MaddonJoseph John Maddon is the Major League Baseball manager for the Tampa Bay Rays.He previously served as interim manager of the Anaheim Angels in both 1996 and 1999. He was also a long-time bench coach for the team.-Early life and career:Maddon attended Lafayette College, where he played baseball...
- Manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. - Christy MathewsonChristy MathewsonChristopher "Christy" Mathewson , nicknamed "Big Six", "The Christian Gentleman", or "Matty", was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire career in what is known as the dead-ball era...
- former professional baseball player, New York GiantsSan Francisco GiantsThe San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
(now the San Francisco Giants). - Joseph L. MankiewiczJoseph L. MankiewiczJoseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
- film director, producer, and screenwriter. - Richard MarcinkoRichard MarcinkoRichard "Dick" Marcinko , is a retired Commander in the United States Navy and a former Navy SEAL. He was the first Commanding Officer of SEAL Team Six and Red Cell...
- Navy seal, author. - Mary McDonnellMary McDonnellMary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Stands With A Fist in Dances with Wolves, and she is also very well known for her performance as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, the President's wife...
- actress. - Gerry McNamaraGerry McNamaraGerry McNamara Sucks because he did not get drafted into the NBA.Gerry McNamara is a former American basketball player and current graduate assistant coach. He is a former guard for the Syracuse University men's team, from 2002 to 2006...
- college basketball player, Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. - Jason MillerJason Miller (playwright)Jason Miller was an American actor and playwright. He received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play That Championship Season, and was widely recognized for his role as Father Damien Karras in the 1973 horror film The Exorcist...
- Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning playwright, actor. - Mike MunchakMike MunchakMichael Anthony Munchak is the head coach of the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League. He played college football as a offensive lineman for Penn State University from 1978 to 1981. After his career at Penn State, He was drafted in the first round of the 1982 NFL Draft by the Houston...
, professional football coach, Tennessee TitansTennessee TitansThe Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
, former professional football player, Houston Oilers. - Jozef MurgašJozef MurgašJozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, architect, botanist, painter, patriot, and Roman Catholic priest...
- radio pioneer. - Amedeo ObiciAmedeo ObiciAmedeo Obici was an Italian-American businessman who founded the Planters Peanut Company.- Childhood, emigrating to the United States :...
- founder of Planters Peanuts CompanyPlantersPlanters is an American snack food company, a division of Kraft Foods, best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentile for a 1916 contest to design the company's brand icon...
. - John O'HaraJohn O'HaraJohn Henry O'Hara was an American writer. He initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue...
- author. - Jack PalanceJack PalanceJack Palance , was an American actor. During half a century of film and television appearances, Palance was nominated for three Academy Awards, all as Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning in 1991 for his role in City Slickers.-Early life:Palance, one of five children, was born Volodymyr...
- actor. - William Daniel PhillipsWilliam Daniel PhillipsWilliam Daniel Phillips is an American physicist and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1997 with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. He is of Italian and Welsh descent.-Biography:...
- Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-prize winning scientist. - Joe PisarcikJoe PisarcikJoseph Anthony Pisarcik is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for eight seasons, from 1977 through 1984 after playing college football at New Mexico State University. His first professional team was the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football...
- Former NFL Quarterback (NY Giants & Philadelphia Eagles) famous for his involvement in the "Miracle in the Meadowlands" - Darryl PonicsanDarryl PonicsanDarryl Ponicsan is an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1971 novel The Last Detail, which was adapted into a 1973 movie starring Jack Nicholson; and for the 1973 novel and screenplay Cinderella Liberty, starring James Caan...
- author, screenwriter. - Robert ReichRobert ReichRobert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....
- former U.S. Secretary of Labor. - Paul W. RichardsPaul W. RichardsPaul William Richards is an American engineer and a former NASA Astronaut. He flew aboard one Space Shuttle mission in 2001.-Education:...
- former astronaut. - Conrad RichterConrad RichterConrad Michael Richter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist whose lyrical work focuses on life along the American frontier.-Biography:...
- author. - Hugh Rodham - father of U.S. Secretary of State, former U.S. Senator, and former First Lady Hillary Rodham ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonHillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
. - Tim RuddyTim RuddyTim Ruddy but lived in Dunmore, Pennsylvania from his childhood all the way through high school...
- center for the Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
from 1994 - 2003. - Victor SchertzingerVictor SchertzingerVictor L. Schertzinger was an American composer, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His films include Paramount on Parade , Something to Sing About with James Cagney, and the first two "Road" pictures Road to Singapore and Road to Zanzibar...
- composer, film director, film producer and screenwriter. - William ScrantonWilliam ScrantonWilliam Warren Scranton is a former U.S. Republican Party politician. Scranton served as the 38th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967. From 1976 to 1977, he served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.-Early life:...
- former Governor of Pennsylvania, U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and 1964 U.S. Presidential candidate. - William Scranton, IIIWilliam Scranton, IIIWilliam Worthington Scranton, III served as the Republican lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987 in the administration of Governor Richard Thornburgh...
- former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, two-time gubernatorial candidate. - B. F. SkinnerB. F. SkinnerBurrhus Frederic Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet...
, Psychologist, Radical Behaviorist, Harvard Professor, and author. - Jimmy SpencerJimmy SpencerJimmy Spencer is a current television commentator, and a former NASCAR driver. He formerly hosted the NASCAR inspired talk show, “What’s the Deal?”, on SPEED. He is the former co-host, with John Roberts and Kenny Wallace, of the SPEED's pre-race and post-race NASCAR shows NASCAR RaceDay and...
- Former NASCAR Driver and Current TV Analyst for the Speed ChannelSPEED ChannelSpeed , is a cable and satellite television network broadcast to various parts of North America, but primarily the United States... - Bob SuraBob SuraRobert Sura Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets in the NBA. At 6'5" , 200 lb , he played as a guard....
- Houston RocketsHouston RocketsThe Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being...
NBA basketball player. - John Anthony WalkerJohn Anthony WalkerJohn Anthony Walker, Jr. is a former United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985, at the height of the Cold War...
- spy for the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. - Ed WalshEd WalshEdward Augustine Walsh was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He holds the record for lowest career ERA, 1.82.-Baseball career:Born in Plains Township, Pennsylvania, Walsh had a brief though remarkable major league career...
- former professional baseball player, Chicago White SoxChicago White SoxThe Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
. - Joe Amato - 5-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion. Drag RacingDrag racingDrag racing is a competition in which specially prepared automobiles or motorcycles compete two at a time to be the first to cross a set finish line, from a standing start, in a straight line, over a measured distance, most commonly a ¼-mile straight track....
See also
- Eckley Miners' VillageEckley Miners' VillageEckley Miners' Village in eastern Pennsylvania is an anthracite coal mining patch town located near Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Since 1970, Eckley has been owned and operated as a museum by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.-Early years:Before the...
- Franklin B. GowenFranklin B. GowenFranklin Benjamin Gowen served as president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in the 1870s and 1880s....
, president of the Reading RailroadReading CompanyThe Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
who served as the lead prosecutor in the trial to break up the Molly MaguiresMolly MaguiresThe Molly Maguires were members of an Irish-American secret society, whose members consisted mainly of coal miners. Many historians believe the "Mollies" were present in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania in the United States from approximately the time of the American Civil War until a...
. - Shenandoah
- HazletonHazleton, PennsylvaniaHazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,340 at the 2010 census, an increase of 8.6% from the 2000 census count .-Greater Hazleton:...
- MahanoyMahanoy- Municipalities :* Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a borough in Schuylkill County* Mahanoy Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania* Little Mahanoy Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania* Lower Mahanoy Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania...
- MahantongoMahantongo"Mahantongo" is a Lenape word, translated "where we had plenty of meat to eat" or "good hunting grounds." The name is shared by a creek, a valley, and a mountain in central Pennsylvania, and is a common street name in the area...
- Major coal producing regions
- Schuylkill CanalSchuylkill CanalSchuylkill Canal is the common, but technically inaccurate, name for the Schuylkill Navigation, a 19th-century commercial waterway in and along the Schuylkill River in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The "canal" was actually a system of interconnected man-made canals and slack-water pools in the...
External links
- Pennsylvania's Northern Coal Field
- History and culture of the coal region
- A collection of nostalgia and regionalisms from the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania
- The Anthracite Coal region
- Map of the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania
- History of anthracite coal mining
- Abandoned Anthracite Mines in PA
- Brief history of the Molly Maguires
- "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
- The Coal Region Burger Tour