Sheppton Pennsylvania like many small towns in Pennsylvania used to live, breath and eat coal.  It was a coal-mining town, just like so many others.  However, on August 13, 1963, three men would enter a defunct mine at Oneida Slope number 2.  Hank Thorne, Dave Fellin, and Lois Bova went down into the darkness at 7:30 AM; two of them wouldn't see daylight for 14 days.  One would never see daylight again.

WikiPedia article about Sheppton, Pennsylvania

WikiPedia article about Blackdamp

www.eastuniontownship.com/thrones-account-of-the-sheppton-mine-disaster/

Sheppton: The Myth, Miracle & Music, Maxim W. Furek. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1st edition (December 31, 2015). www.amazon.com/gp/product/1519145985/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

stuofdoom.com/main/?p=3097

Almost a year before the Sheppton incident a very different mining disaster took place.  In 1963 in the little town of Centralia PA a coal fire would start and still burns to this day. Coal mining started in the area around Centralia in the 1850’s.  The mining became a boom and Centralia would grow into a community of 2,761 at its peak in the 1890’s.  Coal would be the lifeblood of the little town but it would also be it’s undoing.

YouTube video (IFZqWRtYvpM)

www.centraliapa.org

WikiPedia article about Centralia, Pennsylvania

WikiPedia article about Centralia mine fire

www.theverge.com/2019/4/2/18290774/centralia-pennsylvania-ghost-town-underground-fire-bacteria-microbes-microbiology-science

www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-centralia-pennsylvania-burning-coal-town-2011-11#some-residents-spent-the-next-few-decades-fighting-to-keep-their-homes-even-though-they-had-officially-been-seized-by-authorities-12

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