Six-Shooters in Somerset: The Curious Tale of a Northeastern Western

Posted by on Dec 1, 2023 in | Comments Off on Six-Shooters in Somerset: The Curious Tale of a Northeastern Western Nestled among the hills of Somerset County, the one-street village of Baker-Whiteley epitomizes the many small-scale coal company towns that proliferated throughout southwestern Pennsylvania at the turn of the 20th century. Eclipsed by the grandeur of the region’s more imposing operations, these humble communities toiled in anonymity to unearth the fuel essential to the nation’s growing...
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Trailheads

Posted by on Feb 25, 2020 in | Comments Off on Trailheads History never truly sleeps on the Pennsylvania Trails of History, but winter is generally a slower season with reduced schedules and fewer programs and events. Charter Day, the celebration of Pennsylvania’s founding (the second Sunday in March), is the traditional start to our spring season. As the weather warms, activity increases at the sites and museums. The landscape loses its dull winter...
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Coal Patch, Take Two: The Preservation of Eckley Miners’ Village

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Coal Patch, Take Two: The Preservation of Eckley Miners’ Village “A ghost town surrounded by strip mines.” That was how Eckley was described in the 1960s, a far cry from its heyday in the late 1800s when the coal-mining “patch town” had boasted a population of 1,500. At Eckley’s peak, more than 350 men and boys were engaged in mining nearly 144,000 tons of anthracite coal a year from local seams. By the 1960s, however, mining...
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