Remembering The Glen Burn Anthracite Coal Mine Tour in Shamokin, Pa. Check Out This Awesome Brochure
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2022
- Sadly, not much is left of the once behemoth Glen Burn Colliery (formerly the Cameron Colliery) located in Shamokin, Pa. The scale of the mine itself and its dates of operation is impressive. Coal was first mined here in the late 1850s & abandoned fully in the 1990s. This mine was truly a gem, loved by many. What makes this mine extra special is the fact that it was an anthracite coal mine tour even while it was an operating/producing mining operation! You couldn't do that today! Starting in the 1960s and lasting until an unknown date, most likely the mid to late 1970s, an awesome electric mine locomotive would haul any prospective tourist 3 miles round trip throughout the underground workings. Once halfway through your tour, you could walk around and see how mining was done. Certified active mine foremen were your tour guides. Once back at the surface, you were allowed to explore the coal breaker itself, the shifting shanty (washhouse), the massive culm pile (waste rock mountain), and even pick for fossils yourself. They even claimed to have the world's first anthracite coal mine museum. It is all sadly gone, the breaker, the massive waste rock mountain is being reclaimed, and of course the coal tour destination. Even the mine portals themselves have suffered extremely deadly and impassable cave-ins. The anthracite coal region as a whole is at an eternal loss with the passing of this once great mine. Shamokin could have used the tourism and money that would have come in from the tour if it were still open in present day. Like most things anthracite related, they are extinct, just a distant hazy memory for most. Tag along in this video to see and hear me read the text from a rare brochure from the mine itself.
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I am originally from Shamokin, I can remember the "dinky" cars going up the the side of the mountain as my father would take me to the old cameron bridge to watch them. I was fortunate enough to go on the tour although I was too young to remember anything. Only old pictures. Roaming around on the Culm Bank as a kid was always fun. great channel
Wow! That's incredible. The inclined plane cars you saw? What year did you take the tour would you estimate? I like Shamokin to be honest. Cool area. Thanks for the kind words.
My family is from Shamokin and I took the tour around 1973. Fascinating and remarkably cool in there on a hot summer day.
That's awesome, yeah it's always in the '50s in the coal mines year-round. What do you remember about the tour?
My grandmother grew up in Shamokin, wow our family ties crossed paths!
I was on the tour in 1974 and still have some pictures of this as my Grandmother lived right on 61 across from the park. I was there a few times in the 80's and they were trying to open the mine for working then, Gallagher.
That's awesome! Any chance you can email me those photos? I'd love to see them. It's a shame the mine is closed. I heard they robbed the pillars out in the 90s causing tunnel collapses.
I was about 10 years old my parents took us on the mine tour ride. I remember sitting in them mine cars, it seemed to take a long time to ride in the mine. We saw the museum and the actual lockers and the miners uniforms and work clothes all hanging up. I wish my parents took some pictures but they didn't have a camera. This was in the early 70s. Iv been to Knoebels dozens of times since the 60s, they have a nice museum and the mine car too.
That's awesome! Thank you so much for sharing! That's awesome that you got to see the actual lockers and their uniforms all hanging up! I never knew that you could see that. What I wouldn't give to see that coal mine lol. It's all collapsed however. Too bad there isn't old video footage or photos, I bet you somewhere in someone's attic there is though! I too look at those coal cars at Knoebels. Just saw them last week in fact. Again, thanks for watching and the comment.
40 years i lived in shamokin , left in 2018 , nothing prosperous going on there in this day and age . Wish they would have invested in maintaining the tour , im sure it would still draw people . Excellent video ! Thoroughly enjoyed ! 👍🏻
Thank you & I totally agree with you. A very sad situation to be honest. Check out my underground tour videos I do if you're interested!
@@AnthraciteHorrorStories I definitely will , thanks you for your hard work , and diligence in making interesting and informative videos !
@@garfmaul3327 thanks for your kind words and for finding me! Appreciate it very much so!
I went on the tour when I was young kid and I wish I would’ve kept everything that I got from the tour.
That's a shame you don't have the items! What do you remember about the tour? Thanks for watching and commenting.
My grandfather mined the Glen Burn Mine. I went on the tour pictured in the brochure - flat car train ride - deep in the mine and did the walking tour with my mom and dad as a child.
That's awesome! Yeah that was an old mine, was the Cameron before it was the Glen Burn. What do you remember about the tour? That would have been something else. I would have loved to have been down there. It's all collapsed horrendously there now. They robbed the coal support pillars in the '90s near the entrance and it's hopelessly collapsed.
Thanks for watching & for your cool comment.
They talked a lot about the history of coal mining and said there was enough coal below Shamokin to light America for 10 years. I remember walking past a long deep crevas with water pouring down it. I remember looking up and seeing long shafts as far as the eye can see with wooden ladders that the guide said were escape shafts.@@AnthraciteHorrorStories
@@HarveyHarvey1958 oh that is too cool. Thank you for sharing this. Ya, those pitches of coal run steep down that way. It's a little bit less steep pitch wise here in the Northern Field. That's a shame the Glen Burn is gone. They really did a number on the first few hundred feet going into that mine. It's one collapse after another, after another. That mine's toast. I really wish this was still a tour. Can't believe the breaker was there until like 86 (the year I was born).
I am originally from Shamokin and took the tour in the late 60s or early 70s with my Cub Scout troop. The tour itself was interesting, but the most memorable thing to me was the abrupt, furnace-like blast of hot summer air on my face upon leaving the mine. The change in temperature was not at all gradual.
That's awesome! Yes, the mine air (even nearby the entrance), switches to about low 50s to high 50s year round. It's intense. That's very cool. Glad you found this. Btw, the mine is toast. In the mid 90s they had a small independent operation mining there and there has been a series of biblical collapses sadly. It's destroyed. Thanks for the comment.
My grandfather, Sam Moyer, was the engineer who worked that small building at the top of the tracks up the mountain. I have been there many times as a child in the late 60’s early 70’s, especially I was taken way up on the culm bank by my grandpap Moyer and allowed to work the huge handles that controlled the mine car moving up and down the mountain. Respect to all the miners who worked, lived, and died fueling the growth of American during the 20th century. As a side note, I remember going in for a tour in the late 70’s and at the mining building (the museum), they had a human head in a bottle of formaldehyde. I don’t know the details, or who it was, or whatever……but it WAS there, and I looked at it, and I was freaked out by it. I don’t think it was a fake. I often wonder what happened to it.
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome story! I wasn't expecting that last part lol. What the hell was going on there?! So your Grandfather worked atop the incline plane. That's spectacular. I think that the hoist drum up there was a Wilkes-Barre manufactured Vulcan. I heard they're reclaiming that mountain slowly. That's a nice hike up that mountain too, the woods took it back over, but I guess they're going to just take it all down. I saw a Pennsylvania wild lizard up there, 100% not kidding. There are wild lizards in Pennsylvania which I never knew about until that day in Shamokin when I saw one, haha. Were you ever in the actual mine underground? If you have any more stories, please share here. Much appreciated, Jude.
I took the Glen Burn mine tour as a kid in the 1960s, it was fascinating. I wish someone had a movie of the tour. It’s sad to see the old colliery removed.
Oh my! That is amazing if I may say so. What do you remember about it? There has to be old, archived footage somewhere, there just has to be...maybe at the Shamokin historical society (if such a place exists)? It is sad to see that old colliery gone. What a loss. Thanks for the comment and subscription.
grew up seeing that all my childhood. never was old enough to go see and explore before most of it was torn down. Centralia's seem was burning and as far as i know is still burning.
That's cool that you have memories of it. Yes, Centralia is still burning. Wilkes-Barre has a fire not many know of that's been burning since 1915 with no end in sight. There are 46 or 47 coal mine fires burning in Pennsylvania as I type this!
I left in 06 for the navy and every time I get to go back more and more of the coal region history vanishes. i wasn't aware there were that many fires.... last time I was in Centralia there wasn't much smoke/steam to be seen coming out of the ground anymore. I saw they covered over the old section of 61. I was fortunate enough back in the mid 90's to do the Ashland mine tour with our elementary class but I don't know if they even run that anymore. I think I may have to get myself p there somehow this year and do some looking around some of the old mine sites. @@AnthraciteHorrorStories
@@valaksimulations4503 hell ya man. 👍 I was an Infantryman. I joined in 06 too. Ya, every year the area slips further away from the coal past. It's kind of sketchy in the cities anymore in any regard.
Well then thanks for your service brother :) my dad was from Shamokin and I bet he saw the Glen Burn collier in operation. I just know that as far back as I can remember there was no signs of it still being operational and we only ever passed through on knoebels trips and we used to eat at Massers fried chicken a lot when my age was still single digits. I think my dad was chasing after a server there since my parents were divorced lol. its been 5 or so years since I was last there anyway so I shall see if Sunbury went down hill or stayed mostly the same. last big news I heard out of there the cheese plant caught fire and PP&L went away and the old coal power plant in Shamokin dam went natural gas. @@AnthraciteHorrorStories
@@valaksimulations4503 hahahaha that's wild about your Dad. I didn't do anything, but thanks for your service too man. Ya, Sunbury is an interesting place for sure....ya, everything's going over to natural gas...or worse these days! Got to love Knoebels! One of my favorite places in the country overall.
The small towns and it’s people of the middle coal field paid the high price of the nation’s progress. To this day the mining continues.
Yes it does & yes they did. I really like the Shamokin area.
My great grandfather died in an explosion there in 1964 along with two others
That's terrible to hear. I'm sorry. That was pretty late too in the industry. Do you know anything more about the details?
I have old newspaper clippings from it that I’d have to get from the attic sometime, but I remember my grandmother telling me the explosives were improperly stored. He was 50 when the accident happened.
Mining at Glen Burn ended a few years after the incident I believe
@@JimmyP-tl8ds terrible man. Lots of neglect caused so many deaths. Neglect being lack of oversight. Poor guys. They had a small independent operation in the 1980s there I have heard. They were going at it until like 1996 I believe! They did something weird down there that caused huge collapses just a short way into the portal. It's totally screwed. I heard in 1998 the subsidences hit. It bent steel I beams in the ceiling and the walls to bend like pretzels.
Can you tell me who the "Glen Burn" colliery was named after? All I've found is "former management" but I never learned who the former management was. My folks were from Mount Carmel and after I was grown, my dad took me to what was left of the Glen Burn colliery.
That's cool you got to see it, I think it was torn down in the year I was born which was 1986. I don't know off hand. I apologize. It was pre Civil War era I believe. So that would be some old school stuff right there. I'll have to look into that. I support Ukraine too by the way. 🫡