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| Historic
photos of Nanty Glo's mines |
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| When coal was king: State
records indicate that Cambria and Somerset County mines employed 21,300 workers
in 1950, compared with only 1,280 in 2000. Cambria County in 2000 produced 2.3
million tons of coal, of which all but 56,590 tons came from surface or "strip"
mines. In the heyday of coalmining in the area, almost all that was produced was
converted to coke to fuel steel furnaces in Johnstown and Buffalo, New York, plants.
Now, the coal produced is used almost entirely to produce electricity. There are
no longer any major steel factories in the area, and those that exist at a distance
use electric, not coal, furnaces (see correction,
here). |
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The
photo above was developed from a 35mm slide that belongs to Bonnie
Adams, whose late husband, Clayton Adams, is the younger man in the center,
with his thumbs in his pockets. Several readers have sent names of others shown,
though not all the identifications match from one source to the next. As best
we can tell thus far, in the back row, are William Adams (Clayton's brother),
left; Everett Wilson, Roy Findley, Blaine Teeter, Carl Teeter, and --?-- McDermott.
In the first row, left to right: Bert Teeter; --?--, Clair Wilson (in bib overalls),
Russ Teeter (--or Pete Miller?), Sam Eppolito(?), and, standing against the wall,
--?--. The older man near the center in light blue shirt and suspenders is John
B. Stager. The group is the outside shop crew at Heisley (later Bethlehem Mine
31), Nanty Glo. The photo is believed to have been taken in the late 1940s-early
'50s. Click the photo for a slightly different slide, which includes several other
faces, including, kneeling from left to right:---Harold Holsopple, Bill Adams,
and Everett Wilson. On the top row: Lawrence Teeter third from left and Sam Eppolito,
fourth from left. Thanks to Lou Stager, George Dilling, Barbara Teeter, and
Barbara Hakanen for supplying names to match faces on the photos. Names of
any of the other men that can be provided will be added as received. |
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| Nanty
Glo Mine No. One, better known in the area's history as the Dunwiddie Mine, is
seen above left in a historic postcard. It is described in the brief
history of Nanty Glo by William Martin and Betty Nedrich: "By 1899 the
huge coal deposits in the settlement had attracted additional settlers and the
Pennsylvania Railroad installed a line through the community that year. Commercial
mining was initated in 1896 by Dr. James W. Dunwiddie of Pine Flats, Indiana County,
who opened up what was then called Nanty Glo No. 1." The site of the mine
entrance in the photo, from the postcard collection of William Martin, was near
the spot at which the final photo at the bottom of this page, of Webster and Heisley
Mines, was taken some years later. That spot, as it now looks on the side of Lloyd
Street, is shown at the photo above right, by Judy Rose. |
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At
left: the entrance to Heisley Mine in Nanty Glo.
The
photo at left is one of the hundreds of representations of Blacklick Valley contained
in the
NTAMHS
CD-ROM
now available for a donation. Click
here for details. |
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| The
picture above and the five next below were sent by Hobe Rose, a 1950 graduate
of Nanty Glo High School and a longtime employee of Nanty Glo's Heisley Mine,
later known as Bethlehem Mine #31, now retired and
residing in Revloc. The photo above shows the area where the underground shop
was to be built, before construction. The dark area in the bottom is the coal
seam, which was about 48" high. Multiplying the coal seam a few times provides
an approximation of how high the ceiling was, and the other measurements in the
photo. There are some stairs in the rear of the cave/room that led to an upper
room that contained vents with fans that carried away foul and gaseous air.
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| The
photo above shows the "room" as is being developed, and, below, it appears
as it was when finished and in use. |
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| The
tipple of the Webster Mine, which was adjacent to Heisley Mine but closed long
before the latter, is seen on left, beyond the railroad tracks. |
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| Above:
Heisley Mine's oil drum storage area. |
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| Above:
Heisley Mine's locomotive rapair shop. |
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| Finally,
this picture taken "many years ago" highlights two of Nanty Glo's mines
from the borough's boom days as an industrial center. In the center-right is some
outside works of Heisley Mine, later known as Bethlehem Mine #31. In the foreground
is Webster Mine. In the far background is the location of the Springfield Mine.
Thanks to Lou Stager for sending the photo, who writes: "The mine in the
foreground is Webster. My dad worked there as the blacksmith for several years.
His work area was the building with the dark front near the bottom of the photo.
He spent the rest of his working life as a blacksmith for the Heisley mine. His
work area there was in the building just to the left of the Webster Mine tipple.
You can barely make out the Springfield mine area in the background. The light
area on the left side is the ball field where Nanty Glo High played football games
and the field was also used for baseball games. The smoke stack and the building
with the light roof was Heisley's power plant. If I'm not mistaken, that is where
Tom Hawksworth worked
with his father. I figured that the photo was taken on the hillside above Lloyd
Street. Don't know what year it was, and the notation on the back says, 'Here
is an old picture of the mines.'" A larger version of the photo on which more
detail can be seen can be displayed by clicking the photo. |
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NEWS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------August
29, 2004
New
mine operations in area will be nonunion, source believes A
reliable source on mining information in the Blacklick Valley area, a retired
UMWA miner, has told the Home Page that recent reports in the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat
about two emerging mining operations omitted what may be a vital fact. Indications
are, he wrote, that the operations, which are expected to provide new well-paying
jobs to several hundred local miners, will be nonunion. He writes: These
[reports] are giving old news; plans have been underway to open a portal [for
the former Ebensburg Bethlehem Mine] near Sankertown for quite a while. It is
my understanding that if they enter through an old portal which was UNION, then
they would have to be union (but this is hearsay). But this mine is to work 24
hours a day, seven days a week, so it can't be a union mine. There
is another good reason for not using the old portals. The elevators have been
removed, the shaft building razed, and the holes filled with rock, etc. all the
way to the top, and then sealed with concrete. It would probably be safer to drill
new shafts. Mine #38 [already
being operated in Jackson Township according to the Tribune-Democrat] is
being prepared for production. It is located on the road to Summerhill from Mundys
Corner, about four miles from the [former mine entrance]. This is not a shaft
mine; it is a slope mine.
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