Ashland, Pennsylvania Trip 2 - Wednesday

In the town of Centralia, PA, a massive fire burns in a pit underneath. The pit that the fire burns in started 0ut as a means of waste disposal. Every time the pit would fill up, firemen would be called in to burn the waste. Unbeknownst to these firemen, in the year of 1962,, there was a vein of coal exposed in the pit, and a the resulting burn of waste started a fire that has been burning ever since. Most of the citizens of Centralia have been evacuated, but the fire cannot be properly put out until the nine remaining people leave.

There were various types of jobs available in the coal mine. Adult men were usually the ones to do all of the heavy work, such as the actual act of mining. Younger boys could also find work within the mines, as breaker boys, and mule drivers. They were responsible for separating coal from rock, and taking care of the mules that hauled the coal up to the surface, respectively. These boys made somewhere around 90 cents a day for this work

Mining coal required a combination of physical labor, using tools such as drills, and the use of explosives, such as dynamite. Canaries and rats were used as a type of warning, since they could sense the presence 0f dangerous gases such as methane. Miners used an open flame as a source of light.

This particular mine is a horizontal drift mine, which is a mine that works coal seams and veins. It is also home to the largest vein of coal in the world, the Mammoth Vein. The gangway [the main level of the mine] that we visited within the mountain was horizontal, instead of vertical like the mountain itself. This is because the coal veins are horizontal as well.

Unfortunately, the companies that ran coal mines viewed their employees as expendable, or easily replaced. The Pioneer Tunnel Mine, for example, did not have a local hospital until much later. Injured workers were sent home to be taken care of by wives and daughters, and oftentimes didn’t make it. In addition to lack of care, the mines themselves were dangerous as well. If cave-ins weren’t occurring, miners usually ended up exposed to dangerous gases, or large amounts of soot and dust, which led to Black Lung, a usually fatal condition.