Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour

Northeastern Pennsylvania holds most of the anthracite coal in the United States, a hard coal that burns hot and clean, and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was one of the most valuable resources in the country. The region's mines fueled the railroads, heated the cities of the East, and drew waves of immigrants from Ireland, Wales, Poland, Italy, and beyond to work them. Scranton grew from a small settlement into a booming industrial city on the strength of iron, railroads, and above all coal, earning the nickname the Electric City for its early electric streetcars. The wealth flowed to mine owners and railroads, while the miners and their families lived hard lives in company towns, paid low wages for perilous work in an industry that took a terrible toll in accidents and disease. The coal industry declined through the twentieth century as oil and gas took over home heating and the richest seams played out, leaving the region to reckon with its legacy.

Rather than let the story fade, the community preserved a mine and opened it for tours, so that visitors could descend into the actual workings and grasp what the age of anthracite really cost the people who dug it.

The tour begins by boarding a mine car that carries you down a steep slope into the earth, following the path the miners took to reach the coal seams far below the surface. The descent itself is memorable, the light of day shrinking behind you as the car rattles down into the dark and the cool, damp air of the mine closes in.

At the bottom, you walk through the tunnels and rooms of the mine on foot, following your guide past the seams of black anthracite in the walls. The guides tell the human story of the place, the back-breaking work, the pay measured by the ton, the boys who sorted coal and tended doors underground, and the ever-present dangers, giving a vivid and sobering picture of a way of life that shaped the whole region.

The Lackawanna Valley and the wider anthracite region were shaped by the immigrants who came to mine the coal, and their churches, clubs, and traditions still mark the towns of northeastern Pennsylvania. The nearby Anthracite Heritage Museum tells the fuller story of that immigrant labor and community life, a companion to the mine tour itself.

This land was long the homeland of the Lenape, also called the Delaware, and of the Susquehannock and Haudenosaunee peoples who lived along the rivers and through the mountains of the region before displacement in the colonial and early national eras. None are federally recognized in Pennsylvania today, and descendant nations continue elsewhere. The coal that transformed the valley lay beneath their former homeland.

The mine tour runs on a seasonal schedule, generally through the warmer months, and closes in the depths of winter, so it is a spring, summer, and fall attraction. Underground, the temperature stays cool and steady no matter the season, so a jacket is welcome year-round.

Summer is the busiest, when families and heritage travelers come through and McDade Park is at its liveliest. Spring and fall bring lighter crowds and pleasant weather above ground for pairing the mine with the Anthracite Heritage Museum and the other coal and railroad sites around Scranton, including nearby Steamtown.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.