Welcome to
Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train
OUR ATTRACTIONS
Programs, Services, and Attractions
OUR UNDERGROUND
MINE TOURS
Pioneer Tunnel is a horizontal drift mine. Visitors board an open mine car pulled by a battery-operated mine motor that travels 1800 feet into the side of the mountain and 400 feet below the earth. The temperature inside the mine averages between 48 - 52 degrees. The tour is approximately 35 - 40 minutes long. Once visitors travel deep inside the mine, they exit their cars and follow a mine guide. Mine guides explain how coal is mined. There are story boards inside the mine depicting the mining operation. Mine guides draw visitors' attention to the numerous coal seams and provide a description of various configurations of passageways, some cut from solid rock in order to reach the coal. The tour is educational as well as entertaining. the tour is appropriate for people of most ages.
OUR SCENIC STEAM TRAIN RIDE
The steam locomotive titled the "Henry Clay" is a narrow gauge steam locomotive built in the 1920s. The Henry Clay takes visitors on a scenic three-quarter-mile ride around the side of Mahanoy Mountain to view another form of coal mining known as "strip mining". Visitors observe the Mammoth Stripping, an area where an unusually thick seam of anthracite, known as the Mammoth Vein, out crops to the surface of the earth. The entire tour is approximately 30 minutes in length.
Our Programs
Pre-K - 12 Educational Programs
Pioneer Tunnel offers specialized educational programs for children in preschool through twelfth grade. Programming is directly linked to local history and Schuylkill County's industrial time period.
