Anthracite is mined largely by hand using the same 19th century techniques as generations before.  The coal seams are narrow and steep which prevents use of large equipment.  Unlike the large bituminous mines which have hundreds of people working below the anthracite mines have only a handful. 

Anthracite was first discovered in northeast Pennsylvania's Schuylkill County in 1790.  Unlike the softer, dirtier and more common bituminous coal anthracite makes up only 1% of the world’s coal reserves and costs more than double that of regular coal.   It is hard and burns clean.   The cost makes it prohibitive for use in power plants but ideal for home heating, where it’s high energy content and clean burning are suitable.  It’s also used for water filtration in municipal water plants. In the US it is found in narrow veins which makes it harder to mine by machine, and therefore less profitable.  That means corporations don't waste their time.  The coal is left to the 100 or so independent miners who still use old methods of dynamite and pick axes. 

There are less than a dozen independent  family owned anthracite mines left in Pennsylvania, down from 140 in 1985. Most employ less than 6 people.

Early each morning a handful of men, often as few as 2 or 3, will leave the ramshackle shanty found at the surface of each mine and pile into a cart which is lowered into the ground via a hoist run by one of their colleagues on top.  They turn on the headlights attached to their helmets as they head into the dark underground.

They come from generations of miners and know the dangers.  Heavy timbers shore up the rock ceilings and also act as a warning system.  If the timbers crack or buckle the structure is failing. 

 

Farmer Bob was 49 years old when this was taken and had been an underground miner his entire adult life. 

Buck is co-owner with his father of a mine which employs five people.  The old mine had been worked for 30 years and the coal seam had run out so they had moved equipment a quarter mile away and dug exploratory trenches.

Last photograph of the underground crew at the old B&B Mine before it was closed.    B&B was a deep mine, extending 1000 feet in a near vertical shaft.

 

A coal processing plant which has been operating since the 1940's.  The small mines sell their raw coal to the breakers who then process it and sell to customers for home heating.

 

Coal miner Bob Shingara taking a smoke break during the closing and decommissioning of the old Little Buck Mine.   This building was soon torn down, and the miners hauled their huge equipment away to a new location.  His family has been mining for three generations and most of his uncles, brothers and nephews are miners.

The anthracite miners left in Pennsylvania are often family who have passed on the secrets of the trade to the next generation. 

 

In spring of 2014 an underground accident occurred at this mine when part of a rock ceiling collapsed, breaking one miner’s back and another’s legs.  Both are recovering.

Pins show where the miners are currently located underground.  Used in conjunction with modern wireless trackers

Bob is the co-owner of a five-man deep anthracite mine.   I photographed him after a mining accident in which he was pinned between the underground cart and the dumper and broke several ribs and his wrist.  He missed a day and a half of work before returning underground.

Matt was 19 years old and a new miner when I photographed him.  His shirt sleeve was pulled up to show me his new Independent Miners of America tattoo.  It is estimated that there are fewer than 100 independent deep miners left in Pennsylvania.

Eight-year-old Hailey's dad is a coal miner.  She is dropped off by her school bus each afternoon at the dirt road, blackened by coal dust, which leads to the mine.  Sitting in her dad's truck, surrounded by suspended cables, loaders, trucks, and piles of coal,  she quietly works on her schoolwork until he returns to the surface from underground and they go home.

One of the last dirt race tracks in anthracite country. Big Al’s dirt track racing is owned by a coal miner and continues the tradition of rough, flamboyant racing during off-duty hours both as racers and spectators.

Piles of scrap rock after the coal has been picked

Roberta is the only woman I have seen working at any of the mines during my four year project.   Here she is pulling stones off the incoming coal conveyer belt.

A 30-year-old hard living miner with multiple scars from accidents and bar fights, Rick ended up symbolizing for me the typical personality of many miners. What did I take away from my time spent with the miners?  The relationships, the bonds, the ties that they have, the pride they take in what they do, and the pride they take in being independent

90-year-old retired miner who has a small museum of mining memorabilia in his garage, holding a 45-year-old photograph showing himself and others attempting to rescue trapped miners after an underground cave-in. His brother died in that accident.