2 days ago, I made a little drive back up to the Coal Regions of PA. I go here off & on because of the history that this area has from long ago. Just outside of Minersville stands this bronze statue of a Miner that worked in one of the many Coal Mines that were in the area many years ago. I’ve always liked this statue. The place he was placed was not very good in my opinion. Even though there is a platform made of real Coal that he stands on, and lights for display at night, it could have been done someplace else instead of in front of a Turkey Hill Mini-mart. It was hard to photograph this because each and every angle I chose to shoot it, that dumb Mini-mart was always in the image in one way or another. I really had no choice except what you see.
The Miner shows what was once worn by a typical worker from those days. The helmet he wears with a battery powered light was not always like that. In by-gone days the helmet had a candle wick on it that was fueled by Coal oil. This is all they had to see their way in the cold & dark Mines. Candles were also used to see where they were working hauling out Coal by the Mine mules that lived most of their lives in a mine, never seeing the light of day.
You also see what is called The Miners Lamp in his right hand. This also used to be lighted with a wick fueled by Coal oil. Using this type of light method created a big problem in the early days. There were times that Miners walked into a pocket of Methane gas! Not good! The Methane gas exploded killing many miners. This happened a number of times. There are monuments in some mining towns were 5,10, 20 or more miners lost their lives in this manner. Today there are much better safety devices to prevent further loss of life.
I shot this not using my Tripod that I forgot to bring along! It’s a bit fuzzy, but it shows some detail of the Miner.
This is where I got that dumb Mini-mart out of the image.
Thank you for stopping in.
Les
PHOTOJOURNAL OF CORKER2 