Scranton, PA

There is no shortage of excursions in Scranton that interest Paul and I. There is Steamtown, a trolley museum, a corn maze, and a coal mine tour among other things. Scranton has one of the largest deposits of Anthracite coal in the world. Because of that there was an incredible infrastructure put in place for the railroad, in the early half of the 20th century, and the town boomed. Sometime in the middle of the 1900s, people began to use natural gas and oil to heat their homes, instead of coal, which reduced the demand for coal, causing the shutdown of the mines, a mass exodus of the population ( which has still not recovered) and a decreased need for the railroad. Since we had most of the afternoon available the day we arrived, we went to Steamtown, which is a railroad hub that has been turned into a national Historic Landmark/Park. I have seen trains before of course, but never in such a high concentration, with miles of tracks that are still active. We were also able to go inside rail cars, Pullman cars, a caboose, etc. That was a different experience for me. Afterwards we stopped at Manning Farms to get an ice cream. The Mannings are in control of the entire ice cream process-they grow the feed for the cows, milk the cows, sell the milk, and make ice cream. Delicious… The campground we are staying in is Lackawanna State Park. We saw several deer our first night here, plus some groundhogs. We went for a walk around the lake and came to a field with 4 deer grazing in it. There was a bird blind nearby so we slowly walked over to it, sat down and watched the deer graze for a while. They did notice us but just kept an eye on us while they ate. While we were walking there were several hundred migrating birds in the trees above us, making quite a racket. As we got closer, they went silent and we heard a noise that sounded like a car driving on gravel, but actually was the sound of hundreds of birds wings flapping, as they all took flight at the same time. It happened twice more. Very eerie!

Thursday we were both looking forward to the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and we were not disappointed. We learned so much about coal mines and the lives of the coal miners and their families. The lives they lived were so incredibly hard, its difficult to imagine. 12 hours a day in the mine, in a tunnel 2 feet high, not allowed to come out for anything. Each worker rented their tools on a daily basis, and in order to get paid, had to cart 18 tons of coal a day. If he only got 16 tons, he received no pay for the day, but still had to pay for the tools. Our tour guide is from a family of mine workers. He told us that at the beginning of each shift, each mine worker puts a peg into the “in” slot with their name, so the foreman knows they are in the mine. When they leave for the day, they move the peg to the “out” slot, so he’ll know they are gone. If they forget to do it, they are immediately fired. In general if someone is still “in” at the end of the day, its because he died in the mine. The foreman takes his body, brings it up, puts it on a wagon, and drives to the man’s house. He puts the body on the porch, and leaves. He doesn’t bother to knock, or speak to the family. 3 days later, someone from management comes to the house- all houses are rented from the mine owner- and if there is no one to take the worker’s place in the mine, the family is evicted immediately. Boys as young as 5 can take their fathers spot- taking on other, smaller tasks in the mine. They leave school and begin full time work. Tony, our guide, said that his mother opened her door one day and found the body of her father, with no explanation. The tour actually goes down into the mine. We got on a type of cable car, and rode down 250 feet to what is now the bottom of the mine. Our guide showed us through some tunnels and explained all about the different jobs, and the work the mine workers did. Fascinating information. One interesting note…in hindsight it makes sense, but …most of the movies I have seen show coal mines with the wooden beams that always seemed like they were supporting the ceiling and wall…I guess it never dawned on me that it doesn’t make sense. As our guide said….we are 250 ft below the surface. There is no way that wood beams could hold up that weight. He said instead, the beams were an early warning system. If the beams started to “snap, crackle or pop” then the miners knew the ground had shifted and they better get out fast. There was also a movie with news footage from several mining accidents over the years. This mine was closed in 1966 due to lack of demand for Anthracite coal, and the costs associated with keeping water out of the mine. That tour was one of the most interesting and informative things we have done this trip. After the tour we ate lunch in the car and then went to Miller Farms to see the corn maze. I have never been in a corn maze and its one of the things I wanted to do. It was fun, we must have walked about 2 miles trying to get out!

Last night we booked a month stay in San Diego for Christmas, and decided that we are going to Lancaster PA tomorrow for 4 nights, before we head to Muncie. Neither of us was all that interested in going back to Ohio, so even though it will be a short trip to Lancaster, hopefully it will be enough.