Halloween upon us again.. the season of the witch. Front porches lit for trick or treaters.. Jack-O-Lanterns carved.. we check our kids’ candy.. we watch bad movies.. and lately we trunk or treat instead of tricking..
This day, Halloween, is when the ‘veil’ is lifted from our world.. where the here and there separation is the thinnest of all.. So no better time that All Hallow’s Eve to showcase some interesting horror and macabre events from coal region past..
Namely at the No. 4 Jeddo Mine near Hazleton, PA..
The Jeddo Tunnel (also called the Jeddo Mine Tunnel s a drainage tunnel at water level in Pennsylvania. It is one of the Coal Region’s biggest discharges of mine water. The tunnel is five miles (eight kilometers) long and was constructed between 1891 and 1894, and at the time of its construction, was reputed to be the largest mine drainage tunnel in the world. It consists of major tunnels A and B, and minor tunnels C, D and X.
The Jeddo Tunnel drains the mines in 13 nearby communities. These communities are Hollywood, Lattimer, Minesville, Drifton, Harleigh, Sandy Run, Ebervale, Humboldt, Cranberry, Harwood, Stockton, and the Eckley Miners’ Village..
The Philadelphia Press and the New York Herald both printed a piece on the tunnel on December 9, 1894, calling the tunnel a “remarkable feat of engineering”.. but.. The water that the Jeddo Tunnel drains is polluted due to past mining in its vicinity. The Jeddo Tunnel drains into Little Nescopeck Creek, thus polluting the creek and consequently Nescopeck Creek, the Susquehanna River, and the Chesapeake Bay…
And in 1913, something ghostly appeared to occur..
The Olean Evening Herald reported that minors in No. 4 Jeddo were so scared that management had to string lights in the mine..
According to the Herald report at that time, a minor had been killed a year prior when coal fell on him.. The paper same he died trying to tells minors “some secret.” The minors in 1913 stated they saw the dead minor in Jeddo, and that they said his lips move and he tries to say words..
A perusal of local papers prior to 1913 finds various mine accidents in No. 4., including this from the then Pittston GAZETTE on November 15, 1912:
It’s not just Jeddo.. there were some other mines across Pennsylvania that had some frights..
Things appeared to get ‘ghostly’ in 1915 when the Pittsburgh DAILY POST wrote this about the Chicasaw mine:
Other mine tales are told at the Pennsylvania oddities blog here.. Well worth the read..
X X X
And why not…
If there are ghosts, surely they are in the coal mines of the anthracite region…
There were unspeakable numbers of deaths of minors in the area.. The Ashland Hospital was one for minors during the 1800s and early 1900s..
The region is filled with history… and with heartache.. with horror.. and with death.
This day, Halloween, is perfect for a stroll down amnesia lane…
