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
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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

MUSEUM WELCOMES WESTOVER SENIOR CITIZENS GROUP

     Several members of the Westover Senior Citizens visited the Coalport Area Coal Museum on Thursday, August 29, where museum members guided tours of the displays, tools, historical documents, posters, photographs and the large genealogical archive collection.  The hours-long visit also included a viewing of the museum's documentary which stirred memories as the guests revisited stories from their own family history and the role and impact of the coal industry.  Several also asked about donating coal-related and community or school memorabilia and artifacts.  The museum is happy to hear about items that individuals wish to donate and discuss the best way to make the contribution impactful for guests.  
     The museum also welcomes group tours--please contact Curator Snyder (see contact information at left) prior to your visit to ensure that the museum is staffed to best accommodate a group visit and/or to discuss items to be donated to the museum.     

MUSEUM AND LOCAL HISTORY CELEBRATED
IN VIDEO DOCUMENTARY

Click HERE to watch!
     The Coalport Area Coal Museum is featured in a documentary created during recent months by a team of museum members and students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  
Museum member William Morrison coordinated efforts to research and record numerous events, historical details, and more, in order to introduce the museum to the online community as well as visitors to the museum.  Richard Snyder, CACM Curator/Treasurer, also provided immeasurable assistance with research and presentation.  
     Special thanks to Miles Majercsik, Masters graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and leader of the Communications Media team under the guidance of Dr. Mark Piwinski.  Miles and his crew demonstrated a sincere interest in the project, working diligently to put together images, videos, graphics, audio, and all necessary facets for the project.  
     The 2023-24 IUP Comm Media students have recently completed two new productions which highlight the Opera House and the Dixie Theatre in what will be a video series entitled Coalport Chronicles featuring the region's many businesses, organizations, and other items of historical interest.  These videos and others will be published and viewable here in the near future!

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COALPORT MUSEUM COMMISSION DISCUSSES NON-PROFIT AND BUILDING STATUS

COALPORT – One of the first tasks of the Coalport Area Museum Commission at its meeting on August 27, 2024, was to formally adopt the three major documents required by the Internal Revenue Service to officially become a 501.c.3 non-profit corporation.  These three documents include the By-Laws, Articles of Incorporation and a Conflict of Interest Policy, as explained by Rita Hahn, commission secretary—who was appointed as the ‘agent on file’ for the entity.  Ms. Hahn will now move forward with filing with the I.R.S., as well as forwarding the Articles of Incorporation to the PA Department of State—which included a filing fee.  The commission and attendees thanked Ms. Hahn for her diligent work in handing this critical task.
 
               The board members discussed the potential closure of the Coalport Borough Building as a result of the lack of a current borough council because a minimum total of three citizens to serve couldn’t be recruited despite repeated efforts.  Consequently, there’s no borough maintenance workers—especially lacking the importance of someone to soon fire the furnace when the weather is colder and combined with no coal reserves--creating a particular hardship on two of the fellow occupants of the building.  This heating issue will particularly impact two ‘generations’ of citizens (a pre-school classroom as well as senior citizen group onsite) if the maintenance and coal supply issue isn’t resolved.  Museum Commission members agreed that the impact to our coal museum would be minimal—as most other county museums close from late October through April due to lack of heating their buildings.  The group talked about grant and other funding acquisition (soon accessible once becoming a 501.c.3 non-profit), other potential organizations purchasing and improving the building and initializing a search for a suitable new local site for the museum.
 
               Bill Morrison gave everyone an update on the various digital video production projects under the museum collaboration with IUP students.   Their professor, Dr. Mark Piwinsky, has generously agreed to purchase and gift the coal museum a high-resolution scanner to improve our scanning capabilities.  Additionally, Morrison acquired a large television monitor through a donation for the patrons to enjoy viewing the IUP videos about the museum and/or digital videos on coal mining in our collection.
 
In other news, the board:

• read the treasurer’s report that revealed that we received generous donations from individuals along with a whopping 24 newly-joined museum life memberships—bringing in over $3,100 in deposits since the last meeting. 
• was introduced to guest/volunteer John S. Walker, Ph.D., who is an expert researcher, historian, transcriber of documents, and has an interest in our coal museum’s genealogy archives.
• will be holding nominations for museum commission officers and (up to )12 board members at the October 22nd meeting, with elections at the proposed January meeting of the CAMC.
• heard from curator Richard W. Snyder II that the number of indexed obituaries in our files is now up to 8,645 total.
• now has a typed copy of the meeting minutes of the original Coalport Borough Council from 1883-1890, thanks to volunteer Anne Wylie, who transcribed and typed up the 114-page volume—edited by the curator.  A bound copy was also donated to the Coalport borough office.

 
               The next meeting of the Coalport Area Museum Commission will be Tuesday, October 22, 2024, beginning at 7:00 PM at “The Wild Hare” Floral & Gift Shop meeting room on Main Street.