Political Science students visit PA's Coal Region

Dr. Peter Doerschler's First-Year Seminar on the PA Coal Region, which looks at the history and culture along with recent social and political issues of the coal region, went on a field trip on Saturday, Nov. 9 through the southern and eastern coal fields that stretch as far south as Pottsville up to Hazelton, PA.

Students are standing with tour guide Bob Zimmerman (Class of 1968) at Eckley,
courtesy of Dr. Doerschler

Along the way, Doerschler and his students took a walking tour of Mount Carmel and toured Centralia, where an underground mine fire has been raging for over 50 years, forcing all but a handful of the 2,000 or so residents to abandon the town.

Students also discussed religious and ethnic communities with Fr.Frank Karwacki in Mount Carmel, learned about the mining history of Shenandoah from several local citizens, and took a walking tour of Eckley Miners’ Village in Eckley, PA, a former “patch town” that has been converted into a historical site where visitors can observe how miners lived and worked in the mid- and late 1800s.

Students with Fr. Karwacki (Class of 1967)
and Kyle Grybos (Class of 2010) in Mount Carmel,
courtesy of Dr. Doerschler