ST. MICHAEL, PA

St. Michael was the location of Maryland Coal Company's Maryland No. 1 mine, which was opened in 1908. It was the deepest bituminous coal shaft mine in Pennsylvania. In 1932 the Berwind-Whie Coal Co. purchased St. Michael and Maryland No. 1 mine. (Maryland No. 2 was a sister mine a few miles away in Wilmore Heights.) In 1955 Maryland No. 1 produced 519,168 tons of coal from the "B" seam, and daily capacity was 2000 tons. 1958 tonnage was only 41,720 tons, and the mine closed that year.

But there is more to St. Michael than the coal industry. St. Michael was actually a phoenix rising from the ashes of the infamous South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, which was established in 1879 to provide a recreational getaway for wealthy Pittsburgh business leaders and their families. Their resort - replete with clubhouse, clubhouse annex, and cottages - was located on the shores of the dammed up South Fork of the Conemaugh River. Under their watch the lake's dam failed and caused the catastrophic Johnstown Flood of 1889 that resulted in the death of over 2,000 people. The South Fork dam was never rebuilt, but the remains of it can still be seen today at St. Michaels.