Coal Region

The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons.

The region is typically defined as comprising five Pennsylvania counties, Carbon County, Lackawanna County, Luzerne County, Northumberland County, and Schuylkill County. It is home to 910,716 people as of the 2010 census.^[1]

The Coal Region is bordered by Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties (including the Lehigh Valley) to its south; Columbia and Dauphin Counties to its west; Wyoming County to its north; and Warren County, New Jersey to its east.

History

18th century

By the 18th century, the Susquehannock Native American tribe that had inhabited the region was reduced 90 percent^[2] in three years of a plague of diseases and possibly war,^[2] opening up the Susquehanna Valley and all of Pennsylvania to European settlers. Settlement in the region predates the American Revolution. Both Delaware and Susquehannock power had been broken by disease and wars between Native American tribes before the British took over the Dutch and Swedish colonies and settled Pennsylvania.

The first discovery of anthracite coal in the region occurred in 1762, and the first mine was established 13 years later, in 1775 near present-day Pittston.^[3]

In 1791, anthracite was discovered by a hunter atop Pisgah Ridge, and by 1792 the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company began producing and shipping coal to Philadelphia via present-day Jim Thorpe from the Southern Anthracite Field and Summit Hill, built between Schuylkill County and what would become Carbon County.

19th century

In 1818, customers fed up with the inconsistent mismanagement leased the Lehigh Coal Mining Company and founded the Lehigh Navigation Company. Construction of navigation and locks and dams on the Lehigh River rapids, later known as the Lehigh Canal, was completed in 1820.

In 1822, the two companies merged as the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N). By 1824, the company was shipping large volumes of coal down the Lehigh and Delaware Canals. Meanwhile, three brothers had similar ideas from near the turn of the century, and about the same time began mining coal in Carbondale, 15 miles (24.1 km) northeast of Scranton, but high enough to run a gravity railroad to the Delaware River and feed New York City via the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Pennsylvania began the Delaware Canal to connect the Lehigh Canal to Philadelphia and environs, while funding to build a canal across the Appalachians' Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh. In 1827, LC&N built the nation's second railroad, whose Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway ran from Summit Hill to present-day Jim Thorpe.

The region's population grew rapidly following the American Civil War, due largely to the expansion of the mining and railroad industries. English, Welsh, Irish, and German immigrants formed a large portion of this increase. This immigration wave was followed, in turn, by Polish, Slovak, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Belarusian, Jewish,^[4] and Lithuanian immigrants. The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns featuring and offering various ethnic characters and cuisine.

20th century

In 1959, the Knox Mine Disaster served as a death knell for deep mining, leading to its ultimate shutdown in the mid-1960s;^[5] almost all current anthracite mining is done via strip mining.

Strip mines and fires, most notably in Centralia, remain visible. Several violent incidents in the history of the U.S. labor movement occurred within the coal region, which was the home of the Molly Maguires and the location of the Lattimer Massacre.^[6]

Tours of underground mines can be taken in Ashland, Scranton, and Lansford, each of which have museums dedicated to the region's historic anthracite mining industry. Patch towns and small villages, often historically founded and owned by mining companies, also still exist. While they are no longer company-owned, most of them still exist as boroughs or townships, and one of them, the Eckley Miners' Village, is a museum and preserved historical town owned and administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which seeks to restore patch towns to their original state.

Geography

The Coal Region lies north of the Lehigh Valley and Berks County regions, south of the Endless Mountains, west of the Pocono Mountains, and east of the Susquehanna Valley. The region lies at the northern edge of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, and draws its name from the vast deposits of anthracite coal that can be found under several of the valleys in the region.

The Wyoming Valley is the most densely populated of these valleys, and contains the cities of Wilkes-Barre, Greater Pittston, and Scranton. Hazleton and Pottsville are two of the larger cities in the southern portion of the region. The Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers both originate within the region, while the much larger Susquehanna River skirts the northern edge.

Academics have made the distinction between the North Anthracite Coal Field and the South Anthracite Coal Field,^[7] the lower region bearing the further classification Anthracite Uplands^[8] in physical geology. The Southern Coal Region can be further broken into the Southeastern and Southwestern Coal Regions, with the divide between the Little Schuylkill River and easternmost tributary of the Schuylkill River with the additional divide line from the Lehigh River watershed extended through Barnesville the determining basins.

County	2010 Population	2015 Population	Area
Carbon County	65,249	63,960	387 sq mi (1,002 km²)
Columbia County	67,295	66,672	490 sq mi (1,269 km²)
Lackawanna County	214,437	211,917	465 sq mi (1,204 km²)
Luzerne County	320,918	318,449	906 sq mi (2,350 km2)
Northumberland County	94,528	93,246	478 sq mi (1,238 km²)
Schuylkill County	148,289	144,590	783 sq mi (2,028 km²)
Total	910,716	898,834	3,509 sq mi (9,088 km²)

People

Notable people from the Coal Region

Nick Adams, actor
Joe Amato, five-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion Drag Racer
Gary Becker, Nobel Prize–winning economist
Joe Biden, 46th President of the United States
David Bohm, quantum physicist
George Bretz (1842–1895), photographed the Coal Region
Les Brown, jazz musician
Bill Bufalino, attorney
Russell Bufalino, Northeastern Pennsylvania crime boss and head of Bufalino crime family
Ben Burnley, lead singer of rock band Breaking Benjamin
P. J. Carlesimo, professional basketball coach, San Antonio Spurs
Robert P. Casey, former Governor of Pennsylvania
Bob Casey, Jr., U.S. Senator
George Catlin, artist
Jimmy Cefalo, professional football player, Miami Dolphins
Stan Coveleski, Major League Baseball Hall of Fame member
Anthony P. Damato, United States Marine, Medal of Honor recipient
Jack Dolbin, professional football player, Denver Broncos
Jimmy Dorsey, jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, big band leader
Tommy Dorsey, jazz trombonist, big band leader
Ellen Albertini Dow, actress, The Wedding Singer's Rapping Granny
Ham Fisher, cartoonist
Daniel J. Flood, U.S. Congressman
Alexander Joseph Foley, United States Marine, Medal of Honor recipient
Howard Gardner, scientist, author
James M. Gavin, Lieutenant General, United States Army
Jimmy Gownley, author, illustrator, cartoonist
Tim Holden, former U.S. Congressman
Henry Hynoski, professional football player for the New York Giants
Jane Jacobs, sociologist, author
Russell Johnson, actor
John E. Jones III, judge
George Joulwan, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 1993 to 1997.
Paul E. Kanjorski, member of Congress
Jean Kerr, author
Eddie Korbich, actor
Matthew Lesko, infomercial personality
Edward B. Lewis, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Joe Maddon, manager of the Chicago Cubs
Joseph L. Mankiewicz, film director, producer, and screenwriter
Richard Marcinko, Navy Seal, author
Christy Mathewson, professional baseball player
Francis T. McAndrew, psychologist, professor, and author
Mary McDonnell, actress
Gerry McNamara, college basketball player, Syracuse University
Jason Miller, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor
Mike Munchak, professional football coach and former professional football player
Jozef Murgaš, radio pioneer
Amedeo Obici, founder of the Planters Peanuts Company
John O'Hara, author
Jim O'Neill, former baseball player
Steve O'Neill, former baseball player
Jack Palance, actor
William Daniel Phillips, Nobel Prize-winning scientist
Joe Pisarcik, former NFL quarterback
Darryl Ponicsan, author, screenwriter
Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor
Paul W. Richards, former astronaut
Conrad Richter, author
Hugh Rodham, father of Hillary Rodham Clinton
Tim Ruddy, former professional football player, Miami Dolphins
Victor Schertzinger, composer, film director, film producer and screenwriter
William Scranton, former Governor of Pennsylvania and 1964 U.S. presidential candidate
William Scranton, III, former Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania
B. F. Skinner, psychologist, radical behaviorist, Harvard professor, and author
Jimmy Spencer, former NASCAR driver and current TV analyst
Bob Sura, former NBA basketball player
Charley Trippi, played for Pittston Patriots, NFL Hall of Fame
John Anthony Walker, spy for the Soviet Union
Ed Walsh, former professional baseball player, Chicago White Sox
Richard Yuengling Jr., American billionaire businessman and president and owner of Yuengling Brewing
Frank Zane, three-time Mr. Olympia

References

^ Carpenito, Thomas (2019) "The State of Coal and Renewable Energy in Schuylkill County", https://medium.com/@thomascarpenito3/state-of-coal-and-renewable-energy-in-schuylkill-f8850fec3fa6
^ ^a ^b see facts cited and cites of American Heritage book of Indians (1961) in articles: Iroquois, Susquehannock
^ http://www.msha.gov/district/dist_01/history/history.htm%7Cwork=The Archived 2012-03-24 at the Wayback Machine U.S. Department of Labor|publisher=Mine Safety and Health Administration
^ Many descents of openly-Jewish immigrants were born in, e.g., Luzerne County alone, per JewishGen and Ancestry.com.
^ Karen Ahlquist, 2006. Chorus and Community. University of Illinois Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0-252-07284-0.
^ Thomas Keil, Jacqueline M. Keil; 2014. Anthracite's Demise and the Post-Coal Economy of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Lehigh University Press. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-1-61146-176-3.
^ Healey, Richard (2005) "The Breakers of the Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania", 'Vol. 1, Major breakers prior to 1902'. Dept of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth. "Northern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania" (implying there is a Southern Anthracite Coalfield of Pennsylvania)
^ Sevon, W. D., compiler, 2000, "Physiographic provinces of Pennsylvania", Pennsylvania Geological Survey of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser., Map 13, scale 1:2,000,000.