The tunnel at the bottom of the hill was known as the "water level drift" it went straight into the mountain on the Buck Mountain coal vein, and intersected an air shaft & then the #1 slope. It was used as a man way, an air way, and where the water was pumped out (if you look over towards the highway under the old rail road track bed there is a large pipe that was the exit for the main pump) The old concrete and stone building on the side of the mountain was the early hoist building for the #1 slope, there used to be a large tower with a pulley on it for the cable to roll over.... that was way back when steam power was still being used. Then they built the smaller building on top and used electric hoist in later years. that small cavern on top is whats left of #1 slope, it was blasted shut around 1957 and apparently it collapsed down more over the years. St Clair Coal Co was the operation.... the main breaker was down towards wal mart and you can still see the old concrete foundation for the top of the breaker on the side of the hill there.
@@itsdanthepickleman7904 that was my play ground... over 50 years ago.... my grandfather drove the lokie for the company, my brother was the curator of the Schuylkill historical society & main consultant for the book "when coal was king" ... and I was inside most of those mines when they were still open back in the day.. also had access to the mining maps & historical data from the mining records since the early 1800's in the area. Basically... just something I was always into...
If you decide to check it out a frend and i explored it....not to bad(50/50). Went back 300 ft then it gets scetchy. The shaft above is part of this water drainage tunnel. Plus lots of pics from past...lmk when you want to return. Deffinately worth a look and it goes down another level. This is the Eagle colliery/St. Clair colliery. Awsome!!!
My grandfather was born in 1920 in Saint Clair, and his father had moved to America from Italy. Precisely from Nettuno, in the province of Rome. He worked here in the mine until my grandfather turned two years of age, and then they returned to Nettuno, from where they started. Being able to see one of the places where my family's history began is fantastic, thanks!
Absolutely amazing the things you discover in the woods. Seeing that first structure, it's easy to imagine people living and working in and around it. Like a time machine. Thanks !
The spots where it looked like something was mounted was most likely for a winch to pull coal cars up out of the mine or up the hill to the breaker house/ tipple to be loaded
Very cool building would be interested to see it in it's hey day..... also one of the worst sounds for me is the sound of traffic.... not my thing at all.... even at night.... you open your windows and the sounds of traffic fill the night air.... man that is just soooo not right ....
That was cool. Amazing how excited you get when you see an opening....you're funny, man. I would love to have come across a place like that...I'd be taking hundreds of pics. Thanx...
Went on a field trip to the large open pit west of St Claire in the 80's. There are ferns fossils where the leaves and stalks are covered with a white mineral of unknown chemistry. Also in the town was a deposit of really nice 2 inch ammonites.
9:0011:13 is a winch house/hoist. pipes air lines, water lines, and electrical going down. your standing on the cable drum at 10:30. the metal plate is most likely a cable guid plate. its part of the abandon st. clair coal co.
I went in the lower manway about 100 yards got too sketchy had to turn around..there is a drift deep in too the right that goes way down to a lower level possibly.
I enjoy your videos. Too bad most of the old timers who knew about the mines in the area are probably gone. Need to wonder how the concrete was poured on site or pre-mixed. Lots of ingenuity before the electronic era! Please be careful.
also as you leave St Clair towards Frackville,the S turn per se,that location had a railroad trestle across the highway and if you look to the right you can see stone structures,there is a road back there you can walk it leads all the way to Frackville,old railroad bed
I've actually been in that mine shaft a few days ago. There's less bars than there originally was, making an easier entrance. We got a good 250-300 feet in before rubble blocked our path. Really cool place, took a few chunks of coal as souveniers.
@@DSBrival yes, it completely blocked it, but there was another tunnel that we thought was like this small alcove thing until we investigated further. If we tried to go around the blocked path there would be a great chance we woulda fallen down the almost vertical shaft right there. I didn't see any train tracks, but I heard that the line that went through was the Frackville Grade for the Reading Railroad. I gotta take my friends in and explore more. I'll probably also document what I see too. Bring a high powered light with a long battery life, and a camera with good battery life.
@@ThunderTrain2930 I suggest wearing some sort of mask in the first section. Lots of dust floating around in there. Once you get through that part, you'll find the train tracks. It's a 4 way intersection. The tracks go up behind the first section and down somewhere else. I never explored them, opting to go straight instead. The straight path doesn't go too far before you gotta make a right. There you'll find a little room. Past that you can go left or right. Right is a dead end. Left keeps going. At that intersection there is also a huge drop with trees holding up the ceiling. This is where my buddy freaked out because I went left and he stayed in that spot. I guess he tried yelling for me after a couple minutes and he heard the rocks around him start to rumble so definitely be careful. I want to go back again and see how far that left path goes. There's quite a bit of collapsed rocked every 15 feet or so but not big drops like the first section. Just stay alert and be safe!
@@DSBrival an update, I explored every single part of the mine we could explore. I’d say there’s about 3/4 of a mile of accessible passageways that we explored. We had no masks, no safety gear, and all we had is our phone lights and 3 of us had headlamps. And it was thunder storming outside but that didn’t effect us at all, really. We were in there for maybe 30-40 minutes and we thought it was several hours.
I'd suspect those long thin grooves in that cement base was the base of the steps leading to the second story. Usually three or more stories build steps over each other, this might be the case here as well.
I live in the coal regions and it is no place to mess around. Some of those mountains are full of old air shafts. The strikes had miners digging independently, and they left dangerous things around. There is a mountain behind Tamaqua where two years in a row someone disappeared and were never seen again.
The collapses weren't that bad, actually. They were usually easily passible, but more towards the back of the mine I would be cautious, there's giant boulders that was once the roof, and it's dryer back there.
I am shocked, no motorcycles riding? Allot of mining was done in these area's I hope this area NEVER gets developed putting a house on that ground would be devastating, unless you like to see your two story house be a single level. GREAT filming!
Quite interesting how some stuff survives without getting knocked down by vandals!! Great to see something still standing. Maybe you give an answer later in the video, but, any idea of the age of the building?
My Great-grandfather was killed in a cave mine accident at Eagle Hill Cole Mine in Schuylkill County. Is this it? He lived in Cumbola on route 209. What is the Long/Lat of this location?
Yes park by the Dunkin donuts next to walmart go back by the dumpsters and thru the gate the mine shaft is on your right and the buildings are on the hill side on the right
In Duncannon, there was an old dress factory across the street from my house. There was what you called a "pit" in the back, which was a cesspool. So DO NOT jump into those "pits", unless you can handle political promises!
Interesting place.
The tunnel at the bottom of the hill was known as the "water level drift" it went straight into the mountain on the Buck Mountain coal vein, and intersected an air shaft & then the #1 slope. It was used as a man way, an air way, and where the water was pumped out (if you look over towards the highway under the old rail road track bed there is a large pipe that was the exit for the main pump) The old concrete and stone building on the side of the mountain was the early hoist building for the #1 slope, there used to be a large tower with a pulley on it for the cable to roll over.... that was way back when steam power was still being used. Then they built the smaller building on top and used electric hoist in later years. that small cavern on top is whats left of #1 slope, it was blasted shut around 1957 and apparently it collapsed down more over the years. St Clair Coal Co was the operation.... the main breaker was down towards wal mart and you can still see the old concrete foundation for the top of the breaker on the side of the hill there.
Hunch was gonna send u this video but I see your already here,check out some of this guys other videos cool stuff
How do u know all this
@@itsdanthepickleman7904 that was my play ground... over 50 years ago.... my grandfather drove the lokie for the company, my brother was the curator of the Schuylkill historical society & main consultant for the book "when coal was king" ... and I was inside most of those mines when they were still open back in the day.. also had access to the mining maps & historical data from the mining records since the early 1800's in the area. Basically... just something I was always into...
If you decide to check it out a frend and i explored it....not to bad(50/50).
Went back 300 ft then it gets scetchy. The shaft above is part of this water drainage tunnel. Plus lots of pics from past...lmk when you want to return. Deffinately worth a look and it goes down another level.
This is the Eagle colliery/St. Clair colliery. Awsome!!!
they are now restructuring the highway (route 61) along here you may want to explore now,we took a walk along a few miles pretty cool
I was doing some reading I believe those are the old ruins of Herbine coal company!
I was inside that gated entrance 😊
My grandfather was born in 1920 in Saint Clair, and his father had moved to America from Italy. Precisely from Nettuno, in the province of Rome. He worked here in the mine until my grandfather turned two years of age, and then they returned to Nettuno, from where they started. Being able to see one of the places where my family's history began is fantastic, thanks!
I would totally live in that if they fixed it up to be a home. I love the charm of history. Of course there would need to be a road though.... haha
These ruins are so cool! Loving the of all the walls still standing in the trees with gaping window holes. Awesome!
I used to live near Saint Clair but no looking to explore the mines.I heard they are dangerous and numerous in schuylkill county.
I love the green rocks and that house with the trees in the living room. I could stay all day there. Peaceful.
Agreed! :)
Great video. I recently broke my tibia so been stuck inside. Thanks for taking me with you on your adventures.
Just your tibia or also your fibula?
@@lindanwfirefighter4973 also the fibula
Absolutely amazing the things you discover in the woods. Seeing that first structure, it's easy to imagine people living and working in and around it. Like a time machine. Thanks !
Agreed
Yup,you can squeeze through there no problem :)
Really amazing that all of this is so close to the highway and everyone passing by probably has no idea its even there.
The spots where it looked like something was mounted was most likely for a winch to pull coal cars up out of the mine or up the hill to the breaker house/ tipple to be loaded
Sounds interesting :)
Can u please explore the mine more and do more exploring in that area I'm really interested
Ruins and relics from a bygone era
Hello!! Happy to be on another great adventure with you thanks :)
Hello RosAnn! :)
@@erinbricker-urbanhistorian5803 Hello Erin :)
Wow, beautiful structure! Great find, wish I could be out their too!
Hello Gayle, please visit my channel as well... would love for you to sub! :)
Bravo
Really interesting. Yes so tempting to venture forth. Look forward to the next episode :)
:)
Reminds me of Greenville.
great find ..another great video :)
Thanks for staying safe.
Those big huge metal pieces that are in the foundation look like linkage connectors
Very cool building would be interested to see it in it's hey day..... also one of the worst sounds for me is the sound of traffic.... not my thing at all.... even at night.... you open your windows and the sounds of traffic fill the night air.... man that is just soooo not right ....
Back on the grid after a week of Family Bible Camp at Doubling Gap. Historic place. Good to see these interesting adventures again. Great video.
That was cool. Amazing how excited you get when you see an opening....you're funny, man. I would love to have come across a place like that...I'd be taking hundreds of pics. Thanx...
pretty good find woodsman
Great video 👍
Hey wandering woodsmen 😎📹👍
Hi, definitely some very intriguing structures and tunnels, where's Jay when you need him ?? lol. Thanks for sharing. x
Another amazing video Cheers from Australia 🇦🇺👍🐨
Great video❣️Very well narrated 👍Looking forward to many wonderful outdoor adventures to come 😊
Went on a field trip to the large open pit west of St Claire in the 80's. There are ferns fossils where the leaves and stalks are covered with a white mineral of unknown chemistry. Also in the town was a deposit of really nice 2 inch ammonites.
hi willget back thought cardfrom pa. But No or Jp either?? Brian
Man you gotta come back and re explore this place maybe even enter it
9:00 11:13 is a winch house/hoist. pipes air lines, water lines, and electrical going down. your standing on the cable drum at 10:30. the metal plate is most likely a cable guid plate. its part of the abandon st. clair coal co.
ty awesome vid!...definitely intriguing!..:-)
:) It was.
Safety First!
That metal box thing with the window cutout in it could be to the back of an old steam shovel
it does go back a long way there is an internal slope and a few buildings in there. it was much less blocked off years ago
Maybe hook ups for coal mining cars. Neat structure. Very haunting.
Cliff goes exploring so you dont have to🌄
Wow you are close to our home. I use to work at the Home Depot in St. Clair. Retired now & living in Hazleton.
I guess poured concrete was heavily used during the Coal Boom?
SB RC 🙂👍
Man would I love to metal detect that old ruin.
Why? What do you think you’d find at an old coal mine?
@@kated33 Could find old tools and silver/gold coins and jewelry.
Very cool and interesting.
Iv'e gone in the other end of that shaft, it's up on the hill but it's creepy!
Wow, pretty neat.
I went in the lower manway about 100 yards got too sketchy had to turn around..there is a drift deep in too the right that goes way down to a lower level possibly.
I enjoy your videos. Too bad most of the old timers who knew about the mines in the area are probably gone. Need to wonder how the concrete was poured on site or pre-mixed. Lots of ingenuity before the electronic era! Please be careful.
Same here Bob
This was very interesting. Like all the ruins.
also as you leave St Clair towards Frackville,the S turn per se,that location had a railroad trestle across the highway and if you look to the right you can see stone structures,there is a road back there you can walk it leads all the way to Frackville,old railroad bed
I've actually been in that mine shaft a few days ago. There's less bars than there originally was, making an easier entrance. We got a good 250-300 feet in before rubble blocked our path. Really cool place, took a few chunks of coal as souveniers.
Did it completely block the path? Did you make it to the train tracks? I went pretty deep one day but my buddy started freaking out so we had to leave
@@DSBrival yes, it completely blocked it, but there was another tunnel that we thought was like this small alcove thing until we investigated further. If we tried to go around the blocked path there would be a great chance we woulda fallen down the almost vertical shaft right there. I didn't see any train tracks, but I heard that the line that went through was the Frackville Grade for the Reading Railroad. I gotta take my friends in and explore more. I'll probably also document what I see too. Bring a high powered light with a long battery life, and a camera with good battery life.
@@ThunderTrain2930 I suggest wearing some sort of mask in the first section. Lots of dust floating around in there. Once you get through that part, you'll find the train tracks. It's a 4 way intersection. The tracks go up behind the first section and down somewhere else. I never explored them, opting to go straight instead. The straight path doesn't go too far before you gotta make a right. There you'll find a little room. Past that you can go left or right. Right is a dead end. Left keeps going. At that intersection there is also a huge drop with trees holding up the ceiling. This is where my buddy freaked out because I went left and he stayed in that spot. I guess he tried yelling for me after a couple minutes and he heard the rocks around him start to rumble so definitely be careful. I want to go back again and see how far that left path goes. There's quite a bit of collapsed rocked every 15 feet or so but not big drops like the first section. Just stay alert and be safe!
@@DSBrival an update, I explored every single part of the mine we could explore. I’d say there’s about 3/4 of a mile of accessible passageways that we explored. We had no masks, no safety gear, and all we had is our phone lights and 3 of us had headlamps. And it was thunder storming outside but that didn’t effect us at all, really. We were in there for maybe 30-40 minutes and we thought it was several hours.
@@ThunderTrain2930 that's fucking wild! I was in there not even 2 years ago and it went waaaay deeper than that
ohhhh that tunnel is creepy
Always Be Safe. Very Cool Place.
Check out the towns of Darkwater and Wadesville nearby,well whats left of them,I consider them the Centralia's of St Clair
That was fabulous thanks
I'd suspect those long thin grooves in that cement base was the base of the steps leading to the second story. Usually three or more stories build steps over each other, this might be the case here as well.
Might be :)
That does look very intriguing to go into and dig out
Saving up for those 50 acres in the woods you're going to buy someday? :)
You know Cliff is just itching to get into that opening in the ground. He can barely contain himself.
Doesn't look safe. Please use caution.
Dean Danielson - 🙂👍
I live in the coal regions and it is no place to mess around. Some of those mountains are full of old air shafts. The strikes had miners digging independently, and they left dangerous things around. There is a mountain behind Tamaqua where two years in a row someone disappeared and were never seen again.
I know that place just north of Dunkin Donuts. Enjoy your videos keep up the good work.
Nope, nope, nope, there ain't no way that I would risk going down in that collapsed tunnel, that's just crazy. That big building is a nice find.
The collapses weren't that bad, actually. They were usually easily passible, but more towards the back of the mine I would be cautious, there's giant boulders that was once the roof, and it's dryer back there.
@@RedneckMineHunters That's very interesting, thanks
Could those metal posts be hitching posts? They kind of look like it.
They might be Tamara
Yup,for ore carts.Found an axle up on top of the hill yesterday.
cool find
love watching
I am shocked, no motorcycles riding? Allot of mining was done in these area's I hope this area NEVER gets developed putting a house on that ground would be devastating, unless you like to see your two story house be a single level. GREAT filming!
Quite interesting how some stuff survives without getting knocked down by vandals!! Great to see something still standing. Maybe you give an answer later in the video, but, any idea of the age of the building?
That is amazing i don't know how you find all the places you do but it is awesome👍👍
It could have been a manlift or crane that went down into a shaft
My Great-grandfather was killed in a cave mine accident at Eagle Hill Cole Mine in Schuylkill County. Is this it? He lived in Cumbola on route 209. What is the Long/Lat of this location?
more mines please!!!!!!!!
The first building was a power house or white house for the minds
Be A Cool Place To Metal Detect.
Yes bring jp with you
Why don't you try the county historical society to find out about it?
NICE!!
Did you have a coffee and doughnut before the hike?
nope
You'll be bàck for a chapter 2
The second structure looks like it could have been a caller e
Again didn’t go inside
sweet,,,,,,,,
It never hurts to dream or have dreams cool structure
gt song foreigner, urgent,
Less talk more walk
The first structure Emma's looks like it might have been a washing plant Maybe
You should go back and check it out.
Go in!😊
Glad you not going in
Where is this in St. Clair? Along 61 between the town and 81?
Yes park by the Dunkin donuts next to walmart go back by the dumpsters and thru the gate the mine shaft is on your right and the buildings are on the hill side on the right
In Duncannon, there was an old dress factory across the street from my house. There was what you called a "pit" in the back, which was a cesspool. So DO NOT jump into those "pits", unless you can handle political promises!
I look like connecting rods off of a train
Youre a special kind of something, arent you ?
Hand gide wire to thine