The rocky hill near Home Depot in St. Clair has experienced another rock slide this week. While local official begin to try to ascertain why the slide occurred, it has been stopped in its tracks by yellow tape and buckets, as seen in an image taken by Skook News.
There was a LOT of rain this week after all. And after weeks of a building drought, the dry ground was hit with an onslaught of weather for days.. Most believe this is the reason why the rock slide occurred–of course the obvious fear is more issues.
The entire Coal Creek Commerce Center is build in a former mining area. Along with that, there have been other minor and major issues of earth shifting around Walmart and other successful and amazing businesses in the area.
The most recent slide near Home Depot appears to be large enough for concern, but also regulated to only that area at this time. Hopefully it stays that way and all will be fine ..
But nature has a way. And the location where this entire center is built on additionally is fraught with natural changes..
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The area where we now find Dunkin, Uma, Coal Fire Pizza, and the newest entry Primos, was once the part of the Eagle Colliery. It then became the Herbine Colliery and later the St. Clair Coal Company. The railroad bridge which once allowed trains carrying coal across Mill Creek is being used today to provide access from Terry Rich Boulevard to Aspen Dental.
Long before safety regulations, mine operators were not required to reclaim and restore mine lands to their original condition, or to remove hazardous and dangerous features once mining was finished.
Abandoned coal mines present a variety of dangers including steep cliffs, abandoned buildings and equipment, water-filled pits, and unstable piles of waste coal and dirt..
Between the mid-1820s and 1870s, numerous deep mines were established in the St. Clair area.
In the 1870s, the Reading & Philadelphia Coal & Iron Company (P&RC&I) acquired much of the area’s real estate, and the era of consolidation began. The most important later deep mines were the Wadesville Colliery of the R&PC&I Company in the west part of St. Clair, and the operations of the St. Clair Coal Company in the north part, beginning in 1885.
Most deep mining ended in the St. Clair–Wadesville area by the 1940s, though some continued until 1957. Strip mining began about 1900, with operations eventually developing at St. Clair.
Those with a memory to now 20+ years ago will recall the controversy when Walmart was built in the location of mining history.
We fondly recall those days of the Internet of rumors about Walmart and Sylvia Browne supposedly predicting a cave in. It may be hard to believe, but yes, the Internet still works before Facebook and social media.
A prediction, EVERYONE said, was made on Montel Williams. Rumor had it that Sylvia Browne, the late and not so great psychic, told Montel and a national audience that a Walmart being built on a coal mine somewhere in Pennsylvania would collapse. This was made, the legend goes, before the structure was built.
Was this all just urban legend? Coal region lure? …Did she really say this on Montel? People then sure thought she did and the rumor quickly gained traction without Facebook’s fact checkers there to save us.
We have said before, we cannot find any of these old internet references to the predictions.. Cannot find video.. Cannot even find old websites that hinted at the rumors. Sadly ICQ and AOL conversations, the main instrument of Chatting online at the time, didn’t save for the world to see.. these old memories just become memories sometimes. And finally the lament could be: They say that nothing online ever vanishes. But that doesn’t seem to be true these days in the 1984-version of the net we live with.
But back to the Coal Creek.. Let’s hope and pray that better times lay ahead for this location. It is filled with culture and businesses and has become one of the most popular shopping and eating destinations in the county.
The visual relics of strip mining will always be affected by the wrath of nature. Perhaps in a situation like a proactive response would be more beneficial to a reactionary version when things actually begin to slide ..
