Kaska, PA

Kaska, PA - Kaska-William Colliery / Alliance Colliery

Kaska William Colliery was opened up circa 1850. It operated, probably intermittently, with slope portals. By 1870, it was operated by P.D. Luther but was idle. "J. Major" tried to make a go of it in 1872 and shipped a little coal before idling the mine again. Alliance Coal Mining Company announced in 1881 that Kaska William Colliery would be reborn as a shaft mine. A very large amount of groundwater had to be removed through the first half of 1882 and coal began shipping by the end of the year. Also, a new breaker and new fans were installed. The mine was served by the Kaska William Branch of the Schuylkill Valley Branch of Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. Alliance operated Kaska William until 1887, when the mighty Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. became the new owner and operator. Lehigh ran Kaska William until 1893. In 1894, Lehigh leased Kaska William to Dodson Coal Co., who already had an anthracite coal mine at Morea, Pa.. Beginning in 1899, the name of the operator was changed to Truman M. Dodson Coal Co. A second shaft was sunk in 1904. Alliance Coal Mining Co. (whose office was in Lansford) came back in 1912 and changed the name from Kaska William to Alliance Colliery. And yet operations wound down in the 1910s only to be rebuilt and reopened in 1918 with a new steel and concrete breaker. A new drift portal known as "Northdale" was driven, a new company store was built, and the old company store remodeled into a boarding house. Alliance Colliery was a successful mine for Alliance Coal Mining Co. until 1927. That year Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., who owned the lease, started running the colliery themselves. Big coal production was reported in the early 1930s, and coal stripping started. In 1936, production sharply dropped. Lehigh retreated back to their home area around Lansford and let a few small companies strip mine Alliance / Kaska William and run the breaker in the late 1930s. By 1940, the coal mining party was over at Kaska, Pa., the name of the company village that still exists in the 21st century.

April 2025 image by author Front gabled company houses. In the classic Pennsylvania fashion, one party owns one half of a home and one party the other. This sometimes results in two dissimilar appearing halves.
April 2025 image by author There are also these side-gabled company houses that could date back to the 1880s.
April 2025 image by author I was told by a Kaska resident that these houses were for foremen and not lower level miners. This town should really be on the National Register of Historic Places.
April 2025 image by author Some more of the foremen's houses. These were probably built in the 1910s when many parts of Kaska William colliery were being upgraded.
April 2025 image by author The superintendent's house still exists, but it appears to be uninhabited and overgrown. Note the decorative masonry that was also originally on some or all of the foremen's homes.
April 2025 image by author The building on the right used to be one of Kaska's churches. Part of the "patch" can be seen in the background.
April 2025 image by author Note the coal heritage display next to this Kaska house: A statue of a fire boss / miner on a large lump of anthracite coal.

Disasters at Kaska William / Alliance Colliery:

On May 10, 1889, ten coal miners were going up in the shaft elevator at the end of their shift. An empty mine-car was pushed into the shaft from the top, and in the same compartment the ten men were ascending. The car came in contact with the cage, snapping the rope, dropping it with the ten persons, about two hundred and fifty feet down to the bottom of the shaft, where they were either crushed to death or drowned in the sump.

Another unfortunate disaster at Kaska William mines occurred when, on May 26, 1898, six men drowned when mining got too close to old flooded workings and water rushed in and flooded the active workings. The force of the water swept away loaded wagons and the mine's timbers as well.

A black powder shot caused a gas explosion on February 22, 1923 resulting in the death of four Kaska William miners. Three other men were burned but survived.