A new virtual-reality tour, debuting at Eckley Miners’ Village on July 20, asks how mining operations continue to shape life in NEPA more than 200 years after anthracite was first discovered in the region.

Eckley is an “island” surrounded by heritage mining landscapes, active surface mines, and reclaimed minelands. Together, these places tell the story of an industry and a region that remain in constant change.

“Coal landscapes are living landscapes that are really responsible for settling Northeastern Pennsylvania,” reflects Dr. Jennifer Baka, the project director and a professor of geography at Penn State. “But their environmental and economic legacies extend beyond when a mine closes. People are still attached to the cultural legacies, but we’re also looking at the environmental legacies of mining and at modern mining. Coal continues to be part of the fabric of Northeastern Pennsylvania in ways that people might not necessarily think of.”

Debut of VR Tour Exclusively at Energize Eckley

The VR tour is the result of a collaboration between Eckley Miners’ Village, Penn State’s Department of Geography, and the university’s Center for Immersive Experiences.

The Hazleton-based Atlantic Carbon Group granted the project team access to its mining sites near Jeansville and Stockton to capture 360-degree images documenting the process of twenty-first century anthracite production.

Visitors to Eckley’s program on July 20 will be among the first to experience this immersive exhibit. Baka plans to use the VR tour as a springboard to consider how human and natural systems are intertwined.

Mining’s Lasting Impact

Baka knows first-hand how connected we are to our environments. Her interest in anthracite’s environmental legacies and human impacts grew from a childhood spent near Carbondale. Coal mining gave the town its name and supplied work for generations of residents, but those same residents have had to endure mining’s environmental costs.

Baka’s own grandfather began working for the Delaware & Hudson Coal Company when he was still a boy and passed away from black lung disease at the age of 83.

“Living in that environmental legacy shaped what I do,” Baka acknowledges. “The west side of Carbondale still has a coal fire burning. The Lackawanna River has had a lot of acid mine drainage. It is part and parcel of who I am that motivates what I do.”

By using VR to show people how mining transforms landscapes, Baka hopes to inform energy development and policymaking.

“How do you more equitably mine resources in a way that the costs and benefits are more evenly distributed? When people have a better understanding of how mining occurs, we can think through what the impacts might be so that we can set up protections.”

Energize Eckley Promotes NEPA’s Heritage

Baka’s program is the third installment in Energize Eckley, a six-part speaker series running on most Saturdays from late June through August. Tickets to Energize Eckley must be purchased in advance and are $12/event or $60 for a season pass to all six events.

Proceeds will be matched by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to rehabilitate several historic structures at Eckley as an interdisciplinary learning center and overnight lodging, part of a long-term effort to preserve the village and fuel curiosity about NEPA’s singular past. Energize Eckley is sponsored by PNC Bank and Mauch Chunk Trust. VR exhibit development is supported by a grant from Amcor Cares.