Old Fashioned Miners Picnic Review

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stovepipemike
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Joined: Sun. Jun. 15, 2008 11:53 am
Location: Morgantown ,Penna

Post by stovepipemike » Tue. Sep. 08, 2015 6:05 pm

I will post this here because the original posting by Den [jack] is here for reference. I arrived early at Lansford No 9 mine,having no idea what a meaningful day was ahead. This is the actual site where hundreds of miners reported daily for their working lifetimes. There is a very full museum that is housed in the original wash house . You can see the pulleys and chains whereby dampened work clothing was pulled up to the warmed and well ventilated ceiling to help it dry out for the next days labor. Pictures and artifacts are everywhere in this building. I watched a film describing the early, almost cruel working conditions that lead to bitter dis agreements between owners and workers. Early whale oil headlamps were on display, leather masks and ear coverings for the mules were there also. The trip into the mine was guided by experienced personnel and everything about it was absolutely authentic. No need for anything but a jacket since it is very cool down there, in the 50's for sure! I learned that the mules had a 4 inch steam line to their bedding area so as to keep them warm when they were not working, nice. The mules pulled in a large horseshoe track route , so they would not have to back up, never knew that! Back on top there was a small Civil War encampment as an added attraction. Food was very good and reasonably priced. There were a number of ethnic items that were new to me and their names were also, a true all encompassing salute to the folks that worked this mine. I did not have to be able to pronounce the word to know that it was some good eating just by the wonderful aromas. To top it all off ,Jack took me on a personal tour of the small town where the miners lived in the company housing. Jack pointed out some of the unaltered originals still there. I saw where the mine "brass" lived, up at the top of the mountain of course. The location of the 2 breakers that once processed the coal is obscured by the trees now, the breakers are long since taken down.. In the small gift shop I purchased a book written by the last President of Old Company's Lehigh depicting the elements that lead to the demise of a once powerful industrial giant. It is a fascinating read. This blog is already long but I must say that anyone of any age that enjoys history cannot do better than to take a trip out to Lansford No 9 mine when they have their events planned. We can rely on Jack to keep us posted, jack knows "stuff" and does a very good job of sharing it around. Mike


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