Tag: coal region

THE BREAKER BOYS, AND THE REST IS HISTORY

This is just a snippet of articles on Google News showcasing the amount of AP dispatches being picked up focusing on my little region in the woods lately.. The last remaining coal breaker in Pennsylvania is set to be demolished.. a little bit of a debate has surged within the coal region as to the merits of trashing the historical structure still standing after all this time.

I linked up a good video of a flyover the other day of the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker..

A few noteworthy things about this last massive piece of history to know:

It is a symbol of when coal was king, when barons placed their bets on the dusty underground that would be unearthed for profit.

From this breaker, coal was broken into various sized pieces–often young children were forced to take out the sharpest pieces–and it was loaded onto trains for nearby large cities. Hence the name: Breaker boys. Those same breaker boys went to work clean but home filthy, and their lungs eventually become highly toxic filled with soot..

Regardless of the dangerous conditions met in the breaker, the coal region at one time employed over 180,000 people in the mining system.

And that was then>
This is now: A region vacant its spirit, a land that time often forgot.. spectacular and monster buildings, like this breaker, are vacant..

When this building comes down, with it comes hundreds of years of mining lure..

The AP says this:

The St. Nicholas Breaker once held the distinction as the largest in the world, the size of a city block and capable of processing more than 12,000 tons of anthracite each day. Shuttered for more than 50 years, it now blights an area whose economy never fully recovered after anthracite’s reign came to an end.

The reign truly did end.
And it was replaced by nothing.

Keep in mind at one time people traveled from NEW YORK CITY to shop at department stores in Mahanoy City, the home to this breaker. Mahanoy City is now falling into pieces, filled with hard core drugs, and an aging population whose homes go vacant after the inhabitant meets the mortal fate.

Coal was king.
Long live the coal region.
Falling soon: The breaker along with the souls of the boys were toiled and troubled their lives with the work of men..

May 31, 2015
This is just a snippet of articles on Google News showcasing the amount of AP dispatches being picked up focusing on my little region in the woods lately.. The last remaining coal breaker in Pennsylvania is set to be demolished.. a little bit of a debate has surged within the coal region as to the merits of trashing the historical structure still standing after all this time.

I linked up a good video of a flyover the other day of the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker..

A few noteworthy things about this last massive piece of history to know:

It is a symbol of when coal was king, when barons placed their bets on the dusty underground that would be unearthed for profit.

From this breaker, coal was broken into various sized pieces–often young children were forced to take out the sharpest pieces–and it was loaded onto trains for nearby large cities. Hence the name: Breaker boys. Those same breaker boys went to work clean but home filthy, and their lungs eventually become highly toxic filled with soot..

Regardless of the dangerous conditions met in the breaker, the coal region at one time employed over 180,000 people in the mining system.

And that was then>
This is now: A region vacant its spirit, a land that time often forgot.. spectacular and monster buildings, like this breaker, are vacant..

When this building comes down, with it comes hundreds of years of mining lure..

The AP says this:

The St. Nicholas Breaker once held the distinction as the largest in the world, the size of a city block and capable of processing more than 12,000 tons of anthracite each day. Shuttered for more than 50 years, it now blights an area whose economy never fully recovered after anthracite’s reign came to an end.

The reign truly did end.
And it was replaced by nothing.

Keep in mind at one time people traveled from NEW YORK CITY to shop at department stores in Mahanoy City, the home to this breaker. Mahanoy City is now falling into pieces, filled with hard core drugs, and an aging population whose homes go vacant after the inhabitant meets the mortal fate.

Coal was king.
Long live the coal region.
Falling soon: The breaker along with the souls of the boys were toiled and troubled their lives with the work of men..

May 31, 2015
A hot summer night as storm clouds brew..

May 31, 2015
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_J6r-Tqk-s?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=250&h=141]

There are some people in the coal region who have come to despise the sight of coal mines, coal hills, and coal breakers. For them, they are a sign of what the barons did to the area: Create a scorched earth while they got rich quick, leaving behind ‘company store’ towns to fend for themselves once they moved out, creating a generation of poverty, dilapidated housing, and old signs of a once booming infrastructure. The video in this post shows the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker in Mahanoy City, PA. It is there today but is going to be demolished very soon–the last of its kind in the area, where coal was once king and had the wealthy families to prove it.

There is initially some apprehension on my part about this.. demolishing something like this? Maybe this one last breaker should be preserved and restored. Maybe it should not.
Varied opinions on the matter.
The decision has been made, though.
This sign of the past will soon be a memory. Just like lots of other structures, train stops, and memorials that are either smashed away by progress or overgrown in an area that often seems to be the place time forgot..

May 30, 2015
More death of the coal region news

I feature some telling headlines from my hometown now and then, today’s offers more compelling information that the dream of the coal region, once filled with hope and coal in veins, is slowly becoming a relic of a past generation..

Catholic parishes in Ashland, Gordon and Girardville to merge

This is a double whammy, of sorts: A region losing its luster, and a religion losing its collections.

Telling tales from northern boundary of the coal region this Sunday morning..

May 17, 2015
New Map indicates the ‘Most Distinctive’ Causes of Death in Your State

New Map indicates the ‘Most Distinctive’ Causes of Death in Your State

It sure is a deadly nation.. Showcased by this link which will take you to the most common causes of death, in a state by state in a factual way..

Here in my state of Pennsylvania, where coal still maintains at least a half king crown, lung diseases are the leader. The filth in the air and pollutants that are in the lungs take a heavy toll in the Keystone state..

The takeaway is interesting, with some predictable conclusions and also a surprise from the Garden State.

From the report:

According to Francis Boscoe, a research scientist at New York State Cancer Registry the most distinctive causes of death in majority of cases is not so surprising. In several northern states, including Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming the flu is considered as the most distinctive cause of death. In Alaska and Idaho the most distinctive causes of death is considered to be plane crashes or boat accidents. In mining states such as Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky pneumoconiosis, a group of lung diseases caused by inhaling dusts, are branded as the most distinctive causes of death.

There were however, some unexpected findings. In New Jersey, Sepsis is categorized as the most distinctive cause of death and deaths by legal intervention. Surprisingly the most distinctive cause of death in New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon is that caused by law enforcement officers, excluding legal executions.

A deadly nation indeed.

With that in mind, it’s a Saturday night.
Party hard and be careful out there.

May 16, 2015