In 1910 a new breaker was planned to be built in Archbald. The Gravity Slope Colliery was built on the eastern side of the Delaware and Hudson tracks in the Dark Valley section of town. It was a huge red structure constructed in 1911-12 and stood for over thirty years. It used the chance cone method of separating coal and much of the culm from the White Oak Colliery refuse bank was processed there. With the opening of this new colliery, the White Oak Colliery was shut down and the cars now brought the coal to the Gravity Slope Breaker. At one time there were 1700 men employed there and 3 full shifts worked day and night. There were 120 mules in use and it was a sight every morning to see the boys driving the mules from the white oak mule barn down the tracks to the mines at gravity slope. The main slope was named Gravity Slope No. 3. It was opened in 1911. The opening was located a little to the north of the breaker and extended under the river to the coal seams under Dutch Hill. The entrance to the mine for the men and mules was located just west of the D&H tracks and ran perpendicular to the no. 3 slope. It intersected the main slope just after it passed under the tracks. Also on this side of the tracks near the manway was the shifting shanty and fanhouse. Both of these structures are still standing today. The Gravity Slope Colliery was the center of activity in town for many years. In 1942 the conveyor line to the top of the breaker collapsed and the breaker was permanently shut down. The coal from the still working colliery was shipped to the Powderly Colliery in Carbondale and the Marvine Colliery in Scranton. Soon afterwards the breaker was dismantled and the chance cones were shipped to the then new Loree breaker in Plymouth. The mines at the colliery operated until 1955. At that time water seeping into the D&H mines from the shutdown riverside workings was too much for the pumps to handle. One by one the pumps were dismantled and on October 4, 1955 the Gravity Slope Colliery shut down for good. This ending the Delaware and Hudson mining in archbald one hundred and ten years after its first mine opened in 1845.
Office of Surface Mining photos, filling the airway in the 1990s.
Our photos showing the site throughout the years, including the oil house which was restored.
