Ashland, Pennsylvania
Today I am sharing some slides from Ashland, Pennsylvania. "Let's call our town ASHLAND!". Not a very flattering moniker, but maybe it was named after Sir Reginald Ashland III. I knew nothing about Ashland, even though I lived in Pennsylvania and am not allowed (by law) to return. Long story. Ashland is only about six miles southeast of Knoebels amusement park. Here's a map:
While we know that these photos are from Ashland, I did not know specifically where these images were from. But I found out! I sure like the "Henry Clay Jr." push train thingy. Walt Disney could have saved a lot of money if he'd built his trains to be propelled by guests, but he didn't have the VISION. In the background might be large chunks of coal. Coal?? In Pennsylvania?
Now little Henry Clay is in the foreground, but a full-sized locomotive named "The Henry Clay" is to the right. According to one website, The engine known as "Henry Clay" is a working, coal-burning, narrow-gauge 0-4-0ST steam locomotive used to pull passenger mine tourist trains almost a mile along the side of Mahanoy Mountain at the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine in Ashland, Pennsylvania. It turns out that "Ashland" was originally the name of Henry Clay's estate (the real Henry Clay was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state).
And hey, what do you know, another slide (dated "August 1966") that I'd just scanned showed a group off people waiting to take a ride into the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine! What are the odds? Wikipedia says that Pioneer Tunnel is a tourist attraction featuring a tour of a coal mine on mine cars and a separate 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge steam train ride. It still has an official website HERE. "If you look to your right, you'll see some coal. Quick! To your left! More coal". You could buy a souvenir hat that looked like a piece of coal.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Ashland, PA!
4 comments:
Major-
What a fascinating little place this is. And we received a U.S. history lesson in today's post. This IS a full-service blog-!
Thanks, Major.
So, the "Henry Clay Jr." is a glorified stroller? But I agree, it does look pretty neat. I'm guessing it was hand-crafted to resemble the big train.
Unless I'm mistaken, those clumps in the background are Kryptonite. At night, it glows green.
In the last photo, we can see the mine train engineer's lunch: A carton of Chinese take-out on the left and a Philly cheesesteak wrapped up in paper on the right. I believe the fire extinguisher is needed to quell the engineer's heartburn.
An informative and fun post, Major. Thanks.
@ JB-
"...and a Philly cheesesteak wrapped up in paper..."
That's one hellava cheesesteak-! "Did you bring enough for EVERYONE-??!!"
Normally, I would love this kind of attraction. However, I can't help but think of the people who were stuck during a tour of a Colorado mine last month, for over six hours. And someone died! I think I'll stick to the "fake" Calico Mine Ride/tour at Knott's!
Thanks for the edutainment post, Major!
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