The Independent Miners of Pennsylvania

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Anthracite is the rarest form of coal, and Pennsylvania holds nearly all of the remaining U.S. reserves.

At its height during World War I, Pennsylvania’s anthracite industry moved roughly 100 million tons in 1917 and employed about 180,000 people—Schuylkill County sat at the center of that boom. During the Depression, as company collieries shuttered, thousands opened “bootleg” holes across the southern field; by 1941, those miners were organizing at mass meetings and rallying under the Independent Miners’ Association in places like Donaldson. But mines closed and membership shrank and by 1983 only 12 mines remained, to nine by 2019, and in 2026 only four mines and one processing facility remain in Schuylkill County.