Pioneer TunnelA historic journey through the Pioneer Tunnel.

Natural ResourcesNatural 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.

Renewable ResourcesRenewable Resources come back after

we use themThey are used conservatively so they

don’t disappear completely

Examples: animals, trees and plants, water, solar and wind energy

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

CoalA 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

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.

The Industrial RevolutionStarted 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.

Coal veinsCoal veins are a huge deposit of coal that can

run for miles and be many feet thickMiners build their room and pillar mines into

these to harvest the coalThe most famous one in Pennsylvania is the

Centrailian coal vein, which was accidentally set on fire in 1961 and still burns to this day.

TechnologiesBefore 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.

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

Mining in PennsylvaniaMining in Pennsylvania has been active since

around the late 1700’sThe 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

MinesRoom and pillar mines are the most common

type in PennsylvaniaThey’ve been around since the late 1700’sBasically, 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

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

Pioneer Tunnel: A HistoryThe 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

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”

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.

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.

In It’s DayThe 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.

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

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.

Works Cited The Pioneer Tunnel http://www.fieldtrip.com/pa/78753850.htm http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/districts/homepage/cal

ifornia/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/longw

all-underground-mining.html http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml