The true story of this famous mine accident in 1959, along with analysis of the demise of deep coal mining in the anthracite region. When the Mines Closed tells this story in the words of men and women who experienced these dramatic changes and in more than eighty photographs of these individuals, their families, and the larger community. Most of the narrators, six men and seven women, came of age during the Great Depression and entered area mines or, in the case of the women, garment factories, in their teens. Some left the region, others commuted to work at a distance, still others struggled to find employment locally. A collection of memories from the author's childhood in Shamokin during the 1930's.
Some tales are true, some only partly so, but they all are authentic oral history.
A story of the coal mining community in the early 1900's, as told through an immigrant's eyes. Geraldine Glodek was born and raised in Coal Township. Her ancestors all worked in the mines. The cage came and took them down. Rats squeaked and raced through the gangway.