The landscape of the Anthracite region tells its story to visitors
today. Remnants of a heavily mined and processed region, such as collieries,
culm piles, anthracite railroads and large strip mines are a constant reminder
of the coal industry. The area was only sparsely populated until
around 1820-1840 when transportation routes began to improve. That, plus
the need for experienced miners, brought in the first wave of immigrants.
Ethnic ties remained strong among the workers of the Anthracite region.
The foreign workers tended to remain in groups who spoke the same language.
Ties to these ethnic communities remain strong today, marked by churches,
architecture, and neighborhood lawn ornamentation.
The first wave consisted of engineers from England, Scotland, Wales
and Germany. These educated engineers and experienced miners became
the most prestigious group among the workers. Next, Irish laborers
arrived, looking for work and food as they fled from their famine-ravaged
country. Then, an inflow of Eastern Europeans, Baltics and Italians
arrived. Every group found comfort far away from home by remaining
with others from their homeland who understood their customs. This
created a diverse work force. It also led to difficulties for unionizing
as the workers were not able to put cultural differences aside to strengthen
their bargaining power.
A Barge party on a canalboat, just one of the ways the
settlers in this
area spent leisure time with friends and family.
Following the American Revolution, settlers moved in and cleared some
land for farming, but a larger part of the population was made up of loggers
and rural industrialists. Located in the region was a vast forest known
as the Great Pine Forest which served as the
main provider for the 38 sawmills that existed by 1841. The barks from
the logs provided tannin for curing leather, which launched the second
highest production of tanned hides in the nation by 1855.
Completion of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad in 1846 and construction
of the Upper Grand section of the Lehigh Navigation in 1838 provided anthracite
from the Wyoming Valley and Eastern Middle fields to be easily and inexpensively
shipped to New York and Philadelphia. The river became a series of water
pools held behind 20 massive dams. Twenty-nine high
lift locks-higher than ever before attempted- enabled canalboats to
navigate the vertical grade change along the Lehigh River's Gorge.
Disaster struck the Upper Grand in 1862 when 30 hours of rain fell on
thousands of acres of clear-cut land that had lost the ability to absorb
rainwater. The runoff created an enormous flood, measured at 27 feet above
normal at Jim Thorpe. Mill dams on the Lehigh's tributaries burst, and
more than 200,000 logs washed into the river where they acted as battering
rams, breaching every one of the enormous dams. The Upper Grand was finished.
Within five years, the L&S Railroad extended south to replace this
section of the canal, lasting a century as its turn in the anthracite transportation
story.
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