In 2022, we cleaned up an old mine car dump located near the former site of the Wanamie No 18 Colliery. Underground mining in the area continued until 1971. Sometime later, a group of mine cars were pushed off the edge of a culm bank nearby and left to be forgotten.
We approached the land owner, Earth Conservancy, late 2021 proposing a cleanup and recovery of the mine car parts located there. Over several coordinated efforts and many volunteer hours, we successfully cleaned up the site, recovering several hundred mine car parts weighing over 5,000 pounds. These parts will be used to restore historic mine cars, including an exact replica of those used at the Wanamie Colliery. Until this restoration begins, here are photos of the cleanup.
Tony Organek Photo showing these cars in operation, 1966.
