In Robert Wolensky’s eyes, the area’s mining history shared the same fate as the coal breakers that once dotted the local landscape. “Anthracite history was a history to be forgotten for many years ...
Rescue workers pull a miner worker from the Orient No. 2 coal mine in West Frankfort, Ill., Dec. 22, 1951, following an underground methane explosion. The state legislature passed the Illinois Mining ...