April 2025 image by author
Shown is the Beaver Brook, Pa. "patch town" and culm dump between McAdoo and Hazleton. In the 1800s, landowner French Coal Co. leased
the area to Beaver Brook Coal Co., who opened a mine and built a coal company town originally named Frenchtown. Frenchtown became known as Beaver Brook, and that is how
it is shown on maps. In 1875 Beaver Brook featured two breakers and multiple shafts into various anthracite seams. By 1878, the operator of Beaver Brook mines
was C.M. Dodson & Co. Dodson would continue to be the operator until well into the 20th century. Pardee Brothers and Co. operated the Beaver Brook underground mines in the 1930s,
and stripping operations began in 1934. The final closing of underground operations followed in the late '30s, followed by stripping by various companies over the years.
April 2025 image by author
A giant dragline sits behind the rail yard on the edge of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
April 2025 image by author
A Reading & Northern coal train rolls through Hazleton.
April 2025 image by author
The label on the side of the Reading & Northern gondola cars reads, "America's Largest Anthracite Carrier."
April 2025 image by author
Anthracite coal mining began at Cranberry Colliery in the mid-1800s, and this operation would produce tremendous
tonnage over the years. By 1873, A. Pardee & Co. was mining the Mammoth and Wharton seams of coal at Cranberry, which
is located on the edge of Hazleton. The breaker burned in May 1879 and was replaced by a more modern jig breaker. A coal fire started in an underground pump station in the Wharton vein of the Cranberry mines on Oct. 8, 1897. It took
two days to extinguish, resulting in the death of two men and 16 mules. A. Pardee & Co. continued to operate Cranberry Colliery until the 1910s, at which point the operator became Cranberry Creek Coal Co. In the 1930s the
Cranberry mines and breaker were mined by Lehigh Navigation Coal Co. Stripping of the worked out sections of Cranberry by smaller operators began in 1932. In 1936, Cranberry Coal Co. took over from Lehigh Navigation.
Cranberry Coal Co., changed the name to Cranberry Improvement Co., and was still mining coal at Cranberry as late as the late 1940s.
1940 image, source forgotten
The Cranberry patch town and breaker near the end of the life of the mine. Also, coal mining at nearby Crystal Ridge patch was associated with Cranberry Colliery.
April 2025 image by author
Two churches in Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania: The one on the left was St. Mary's Roman Catholic church that was supressed by the diocese in 2008;
and on the right is Saints Peter and Paul Byzantine Catholic Church.
March 2026 image by author
Humbolt, Pennsylvania.
