Tragedy at Avondale: The Causes, Consequences, and Legacy of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Industry's Most Deadly Mining Disaster, Septe

by Robert P. Wolensky

The nation was horrified when news of the coalmine fire at the Avondale mine in Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, on Sept. 6, 1869, appeared in newspapers. Reports called it ?the unparalleled disaster.' Even more shocked were mineworkers and their families throughout the anthracite region. of Pennsylvania.This book by Robert Wolensky and the late Joseph Keating presents details of the tragedy, along with numerous illustrations from periodicals of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0930973402
• ISBN13: 9780930973407
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Canal History and Technology Press
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Questioning the "Accident"

Thoroughly researched and well-written, Wolensky's and Keating's work is -the- definitive history of the Avondale disaster. While most sources which reference (briefly) the disaster refer to it as an accident, Wolensky and Keating resurrect the alternative explanation--an intentional, malicious act of man as the cause--and neutrally present it to the reader as a viable alternative. Sincerest thanks to Mr. Wolenski and Mr. Keating (may he rest in peace) for preserving the history of a small patch of a relatively unknown township in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Without their effort, Avondale's history, much like the actual remains of the shaft and mining structures that slowly are succumbing to Mother Nature, would be forgotten.