From Working Mine to Dead End

Continental No. 190 Slope operated from 1860 to 1966. At its peak in 1904, 457 workers extracted 246,560 tons of anthracite from the Clark Vein. By 1964, production had dropped to 51,870 tons. When the mine closed in 1966, it was the last deep coal mine still operating in Lackawanna County.

The shaft sat idle for three years. In 1969, a feasibility study examined whether the abandoned mine could reopen as a tourist attraction. McDade Park, built on reclaimed strip mine land adjacent to the shaft, was already taking shape as a heritage site. The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum would open nearby in 1976.

The Conversion

Work began in 1977 when No. 1 Contracting sent a six-man crew into the shaft: Tom Supey Sr., Tom Supey Jr., Andy Supey, Louis Maranchick, Joe Vavrasek, and Andy Wrubel. These men cleared decades of accumulated debris from the underground workings and began preparing the mine for visitors.

In 1978, $2.5 million in federal funding formalized the conversion effort. The scope of work included installing mine car tracks for the underground rail descent, wiring electrical lighting through the tunnels, and reinforcing the shaft with steel buttresses. The rehabilitation took roughly eight years from start to finish.

Opening Day

The Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour opened to the public in 1985. Visitors descended by mine car into the 528-foot shaft, reaching a depth of 250 to 300 feet below the surface. The tour covered roughly half a mile of underground walking through three separate coal beds, using the room and pillar method that miners had worked for over a century. Underground temperatures held constant at 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, regardless of conditions on the surface.

The tour lasted about 60 minutes. Guides walked visitors through the workings, explaining anthracite extraction from the Pennsylvanian Llewellyn Formation and the daily conditions miners faced underground.

Operations Under Lackawanna County

Lackawanna County Parks and Recreation took over operation of the tour. The mine runs on a seasonal schedule, open from April 1 through November 30, Thursday through Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday are reserved for group tours. The box office opens at 10:00 AM, with the last tour departing around 2:30 PM.

In 2005, the mine appeared in Season 1 of NBC’s The Office, filmed on location in Scranton. The show’s depiction brought national attention to a site that had operated largely as a regional attraction for its first two decades.