During late winter and early spring, the Big Mine Run Geyser is full force!
The annual occurrence of the mine water geyser is timed with snow melting (though this year you can attribute it less to snow and more to rain) and drainage from the former
The height of the Geyser has changed through previous decades..
In 2011, it reached over 12 feet in height from torrential rains…
As water runoff dissipates, the geyser also does..
The geyser erupts from a hole in a drainage pipe that directs storm water and mine water from the mountain, under local streets and into the the nearby Mahanoy Creek .. You may have another name for that body of local water.
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OLD MINES
The geyser of today was made from an old mine of Centralia yesterday. Bast Colliery in Centralia drilled the hole for air ventilation in the mid 1800s.. A tunnel was also driven through the Lykens Valley vain on southside and a valley was carved through the big mine run drainage tunnel from there… tapped and run through there.. The tunnel was a savings since it did away with pumps..
High water pressure causes the water to shoot up from the hole.
The geyser has a distinct smell. You know it well..
Sulphur, like eggs…
From what the DEP says, if the geyser was shut down, it would flood mines and people’s basements …
The geyser is 32 inches wide and 300 feet deep.
OLD FAITHFUL!
How much water goes through old mines and comes out this geyser? A lot!! Water would find a way to escape.. and this geyser saves people from tremendous damage and flooding at the bottom of Ashland!
Very few people–even from the area–are aware of this old ‘sulfur’ faithful!
This is what the HERALD reported back on March 22, 1967:
The driver got a bump on the head.. and a good soaking..
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SO NEXT TIME YOU’RE IN TOWN, STOP BY..
OLD FAITHFUL MAY BE A FLOWING!
