Pioneer Tunnel

1. Pioneer Tunnel A historic journey through the Pioneer Tunnel.

2. Natural Resources • Natural Resources are anything that people can use that comes from nature. • “Gifts of Nature” • Examples: air, water, wood, oil, solar energy, wind energy, coal, and other minerals.

3. Renewable Resources • Renewable Resources come back after we use them • They are used conservatively so they don’t disappear completely • Examples: animals, trees and plants, water, solar and wind energy

4. Nonrenewable Resources • Nonrenewable Resources do not come back or takes a long time to come back after we use them • We need to conserve nonrenewable resources because once they are gone, there will not be any of them left! • Examples: Coal, oil, natural gas, many precious metals

5. Coal • A black or dark-brown mineral that can be burned, is made from carbon, and can be used as a fuel. • There are several types of coal, including: • Peat: usually compressed vegetation, and considered the ancient form of coal. It’s highly absorbent and not much used for burning. • Lignite: Also known as ‘brown coal’. It’s used almost exclusively for fuel in power plants • Bituminous: used as fuel in steam-electric plants, and also an ingredient in making a type of steel called coke • Anthracite: Very dense and hard coal, and mostly used for heating houses. It’s the highest ranking coal • Graphite: Lowest rank. Hardly used for burning, and usually used in pencils

6. Anthracite Coal • A hard, shiny coal that has a high carbon content. It is valued as a fuel because it burns with a clean flame and without smoke or odor, but it is much less abundant than bituminous coal. • Primarily used for space heating in houses and businesses • Deposited in Pennsylvania. • This is what the Pioneer Tunnel and all other mines in Pennsylvania are famous for.

7. The Industrial Revolution • Started in England, in 1760, and spread internationally over the next fifty years. • The transition from hand tools to automated machines in the workplace and farming to mass production. • New inventions consisted of the power loom and the steam engine. • Many people moved to cities.

8. Coal veins • Coal veins are a huge deposit of coal that can run for miles and be many feet thick • Miners build their room and pillar mines into these to harvest the coal • The most famous one in Pennsylvania is the Centrailian coal vein, which was accidentally set on fire in 1961 and still burns to this day.

9. Technologies • Before electricity, all mining had to be done by hand. • Miners would have to physically cut out the chunks of coal themselves, with things such as pickaxes and dynamite • To haul the coal out of the mine, they would load it into carriages drawn by horses or mules, and a miner would have to lead them out • Many miners would either get stuck in collapsed mines or even suffocate from the noxious fumes and dusts.

10. After electricity, and mostly used today, there are mechanized cutting machines for the coal, instead of the dangerous tools used before Instead of horse and carriage, they now use conveyor belts, which safely carries out the coal Fans and ventilation are now present, which tremendously cuts the amount of toxic dusts in the air and constantly replenishes the miners with clean oxygen

11. Mining in Pennsylvania • Mining in Pennsylvania has been active since around the late 1700’s • The last half of the 1800’s brought a ton of business for mining, due to the need for coal to power railroads bringing steel across Pennsylvania • Why was mining important? • The bringing of the Industrial Revolution increased the demand for fuel to power machines. Most of this fuel was coal

12. Mines • Room and pillar mines are the most common type in Pennsylvania • They’ve been around since the late 1700’s • Basically, they’re just how they sound: holes in the ground where coal is thought to be, held up by wooden pillars so it doesn’t collapse • Despite this, they were very dangerous and many collapses occurred

13. Drift mines • Drift mines don’t necessarily have to go underground. This type of mining is used when the coal can be cut out, usually on the side of a hill • Longwall mines • Longwall mines are where instead of small pieces and boulders of coal, the wall is one big slice of coal. • These panels can be hundreds of miles wide and several miles long

14. Pioneer Tunnel: A History • The Pioneer Tunnel resides in Ashland, PA. It was named for the Pioneer Colliery. • A colliery is a coal-processing plant built near the head of the mine. • Here the coal is cleaned, screened, and sorted to make usable for households • In 1925, the Reading Railroad and mining company opened an new surface mine along the Mammoth coal vein: where most of the coal was extracted

15. Two years after this, another mine opened on the opposite side of where digging was being done. • Miners realized they needed this area to deposit waste, or ‘spoils’, so they extended from the Mammoth Vein to this new area. • Around this time, tracks were laid down around the outside of the hill, on which the coal could be taken by train to where it needed to go. • These trains were called “steam loakies”

16. The mine remained active until 1931, and after it’s closing it remained sealed and untouched for thirty years • By the end of the 1950’s, it was apparent the mine and engine used to haul the coal was falling into history. The residents of Ashland scrambled to find a use for the hole. • Soon, the Borough Manager Emil R. Ermet suggested that the Tunnel be used as a tourist attraction. • Excavation began soon after that. After digging through the collapsed entrance, the mine was found to be in stable condition, excluding two cave ins.

17. In May of 1963, the mine was reopened as a tourist attraction where people could experience a real anthracite coal mine • Two old steam loakies were rescued from a Wilkes-Barre junkyard and restored. These engines are still used. • In 1992, the Pioneer Tunnel greeted its millionth visitor.

18. In It’s Day • The Pioneer Tunnel isn’t just a great tourist attraction. It actually was very important to the residents around it. • The Tunnel was active in the early 1900’s. It runs 1800 feet into the side of the Mahanoy Mountain. From it tons and tons of coal was collected. • The coal used from the mine supported many of the households and businesses in Ashland. Coal was the main source of heat in this time, and without it Ashland and surrounding towns may not have existed.

19. Why is the Pioneer Tunnel Important? • The Pioneer Tunnel tour holds many important historical features • The attraction features a tour in an actual mine, where the guides (usually a miner himself, or a retired one) show how deep-mining was done, and elaborates on technologies such as gangways, manways, and chutes. • The Henry Clay Loakie represents the transport of coal from one mine to another. • The tour even includes ‘bootleg’ mines, where people would dig their own mines to catch a quick buck

20. The Pioneer Tunnel keeps history alive through mine tours and Loakie rides. • The most important aspect of why the Pioneer Tunnel is important is because it educates the future generations about the importance of anthracite coal mining in our county.

21. Works Cited • The Pioneer Tunnel • http://www.fieldtrip.com/pa/78753850.htm • http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/districts/homepage/california/underground/pa%20mining%20history/pennsylvania_mining_history.htm • http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/drift.htm • http://www.greatmining.com/drift-mining.html • http://ag.udel.edu/extension/renewresources/ • http://www.wvcoal.com/201003011605/Mining-101/longwall-underground-mining.html • http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml