Coalport Area Coal Museum
961 Forest Street Coalport, PA 16627 (814) 790-0984 (voice or text) Email: [email protected] Richard Snyder, Curator Email: [email protected] Mobile: 814-312-8620 Visit Us: Sundays -- 1:00 to 5:00 PM Thursdays -- 1:00 to 5:00 PM *Contact us for a tour or any special request |
2025 Museum Season Begins
The Board of Directors met on January 28 to reorganize for the upcoming 2025 season. New officers include: President - William Morrison Vice President - John Kucharcik Secretary - Anne Wylie Treasurer - Hank Tatum Curator - Richard Snyder Past officers Bob Counsman (President), Rita Hahn (Secretary), and Richard Snyder (Treasurer) were thanked for their years of service and dedication to the museum. Special guest speaker, Mary Tatum-Robinson, spoke to attendees and explained her role as president of the Glendaie Industrial Development Association. Her expertise in rural communities, blighted properties, and grant writing will be essential as the community and its businesses/organizations move forward. A review of the recent "Scanning Day" noted great success in gathering prized images, documents, and articles from community members. Watch for another opportunity to bring your family and community items to the museum for digital processing. New video projects, including two short stories, are now published thanks to our friends in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Communications Media Department! IUP students, under the instruction of Dr. Mark Piwinsky, are producing a new video series entitled "Coalport Chronicles" which will include special content from the town's history, beginning with THE DIXIE THEATRE and THE OPERA HOUSE productions. Additionally, our second long video feature, MUSEUM ARCHIVES, is now available for viewing as well. See the links at right to enjoy our series of videos. The next meeting of the museum board will be on Tuesday, April 22. The location of the meeting is to be determined. If you would like to learn more about our museum, call or email our curator using contact information at left. Communications Media students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania visit Coalport to capture images and video for recent productions. The Comm Media groups is under the instruction of Dr. Mark Piwinsky.
SCANNING DAY 2025 Gather your images, documents, and other items of local historic importance and bring them to the museum to have your items scanned and used to enhance our digital collection for local enthusiasts, ancestry research, and more! You can keep your original items and still share the with the community! **If you wish to donate your item(s) we can send you a digital image for your own keeping.
While at our museum, plan to tour our numerous displays, see tools and gear used by miners, watch our documentaries or purchase a museum keepsake (shirts, post cards, note cards). Follow us on Facebook for frequent updates and more! For questions contact Richard Snyder, Curator, using email and phone listed on this page. We hope to see you at our upcoming event! (Date and time to be determined) |
Enjoy our Documentaries!
Mine For Your Life - A Coalport Story Our first documentary presenting the history of the community, our museum, and some notable events Museum Archives Learn about our museum's treasured ancestry section. Family histories, school yearbooks, birth, death, and marriage certificates and more! We can help you trace your roots! COALPORT CHRONICLES Enjoy our short stories about local buildings, events, and people! Opera House Dixie Theater Coalport Museum Promoted in United Mine Workers JournalThe Coalport Area Coal Museum is included in the January/February 2024 edition of the United Mine Workers Journal! The national publication was contacted by Curator Snyder following the suggestion of Kim Rudnick, local former miner and UMW member. Snyder's submitted article appears on page 20 along with the museum logo.
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Welcome
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The Coalport Area Coal Museum is open to visitors for the 2024 Season! The museum is available for community members, guests, visitors, and ancestry buffs from 1:00 to 5:00 PM every Sunday and Thursday. While donations are accepted, there is no cost to tour the local bituminous coal history, lumber heritage, regional community and school records and photos, and so much more! View our large photo collection to see what the town used to look like and read about it in archived copies of the Coalport Standard newspaper.
To learn more about our museum watch our video (see link on NEWS page) and then come and see us! New materials are added frequently--if you have already been to the museum, come back again and see what's new! Contributions are welcome as we work to keep the spirit of Coalport and our region alive! *Follow us on Facebook! |
The Coalport Area Coal Museum is located in the large hallway of the Coalport Community Building at 961 Forest Street in "Historic Coalport" (Beccaria Township, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania)
Founded in 1991 through the efforts of the Coalport Area Museum Commission and the Glendale Industrial Development Association, our Museum was funded initially by contributions from the community, donations from businesses, and small grants. Thanks to the Coalport Borough Council, the museum was given a 'home' in its expansive corridors of the community building—itself the former Coalport Elementary School built in 1937. Most all of the artifacts in the Coal Museum were donated by families of former coal miners who wished to have their memories preserved following our motto: To Enrich our Future by Preserving the Past. Most of the items on display are from the early hand-loading days of mining bituminous coal---an industry for which our region was primarily known. The town's name of "Coalport"," incorporated as a borough in 1883, most likely derived from the main industry that was quite ubiquitous in our central Pennsylvania region. Our records show there were over 400 coal mines at various times in our Glendale Valley region of central Pennsylvania---widely know for its quality-burning bituminous coal. Although there are currently no deep mines, there are a few coal strip mines still operating in our area. Spoil piles of local mines still dot the region, and, among other places, can even be seen directly behind the Coal Museum. Heading north on Forest Street, there's a large space where the former "Sunshine Mine" existed—as Coalport was one of the very few communities which had a large working mine and tipple practically in the town center! Coalport is one of the five municipalities making up the "Glendale Valley" region and is located three miles from Prince Gallitzin State Park and Glendale Lake. In April 2000, Coalport's downtown section had the honor of being named to the prestigious National Register of Historic Places—with 53 original buildings helping the town earn that distinction. We're not just a 'brick & mortar' building that holds artifacts: our volunteers and curator are quite capable to help explain the bituminous coal mining industry in our region or assist you finding genealogy on hundreds of surnames from our local area. Stop by and check us out! |