The Elderhostel Programs are one week in length, during which participants take up to three non-credit courses while living comfortably in our campus residences. Participants share meals with their classmates, and enjoy a variety of extracurricular activities, field trips and cultural events.
Courses have NO homework assignments, exams or grades.
Appropriate audio materials will be used. The story of coal in Pennsylvania began in tropical swamps that covered the area 340 million years ago. Explore the formation of coal, the story of coal bed fossils and the socioeconomic importance of mining and its future for energy generation. Examine how the railroads, built to haul coal to heat homes and power industries in the second half of the 19th century, grew and prospered, developed the valley and affected the United States during this period. Course includes visit to local mine and Steamtown National Historic Site.