My 1-Year Research Project on the Anthracite Coal Industry Decline of the Wyoming Valley, AUDIO BOOK

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This was a special project of mine that has been sitting in my file folder for a long time now. I figured I'd upload this to share with anyone interested in the Anthracite Coal Industry decline in the late 1950s/early 1960s & how it affected 3 generations of inhabitants of the Wyoming Valley.

I did all of this research/writing myself for my Bachelor's Degree at Bloomsburg University. This was part of a 2 semesters long history program (historiography & research/writing) my senior year. To say it was an experience is an understatement! I was only 1 of 4 students in my class to finish the course successfully. I had fun though because it was all centered the topic of "anthracite coal" which is never really work for myself to study. It was a pleasure to be honest.

This is a good case study of the decline of coal in the Wyoming Valley and how it lingers in the minds of my parents generation & my own. It is also a good case study for the overall de-industrialization of the United States (a sad and depressing topic, I know). I had the honor and privilege to interview not only an original "golden era" anthracite coal miner, but 2. Mr. Leonard Sulzinski worked with my grandfather Joe (who is also mentioned in this book), he was a laborer, then miner, then finally mine foreman. He was a cool guy, I really got to know & like Leonard. We talked mines and our love of them. He really enjoyed being a miner, even though his father died from an absolutely heinous, violent mining accident underground at the Huber Colliery. He passed away 10 years ago now, I do legit miss him. Leonard even knew my great-grandfather Mike, who also worked at the Dorrance (in Wilkes-Barre) underground as a miner. The next miner I interviewed, was Andy Gotcha. He worked underground in the Nanticoke coal mines & also at the Huber Colliery, ultimately, he ended his anthracite mine career strip mining in the Hazleton area.

There's nothing groundbreaking about my research or this article. It is, however, a small story that shows how the anthracite coal industry collapse affected people. Their lives were forever altered once the industry floundered, all of our lives did. We still feel the effects of this industry collapse to this very day & will continue to. As my father in the article states "What it did [the decline of the industry], I'm not talking what it did to the land, [but]what it did to the people." As for historian Ben Marsh, he notes that the people here "have a powerful sense of belonging just where they are, with such ties to these tired old places that they are reluctant to move under any circumstances. Even when faced with an active mine fire, like the one beneath the town of Centralia, the people move slowly, resentfully, and not very far." That last quote was taken from his published work "Continuity and Decline in the Anthracite Towns of Pennsylvania".

I also got to interview my Aunt Marylou who made some great observations about the Wyoming Valley. She too recently passed away and she is missed. Love you Aunt Marylou. The Huber Breaker in Ashley was still being proposed to be possibly saved while I was writing this paper (it is gone, scrapped, destroyed). I also mention the Dorrance Colliery Fan house complex and it possibly being salvaged (torn down, fans and steam engines sent to the Lansford Coal Tour recently), but buildings and the last bit of mining History on that Colliery site was decimated. Undoubtedly also, I mentioned that there were some 2,000 anthracite coal mining workers in the region here of Pennsylvania, I'd imagine that this number has since lowered (perhaps not though).

Doesn't this all sound familiar if you are from the Anthracite Coal Region? We all have our own stories of the Anthracite decline. We have all lived through the stories of it. If you have some, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO MENTION THEM IN THE COMMENTS!

Let me know what you think of this audiobook. Thanks again for viewing (listening).

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