Interview with Stephen Cichy, Coal Miner, Austin Heights

Carl: Steve when did you first start mining coal?

Steve: It was about 1949. I started at the # 10 tunnel on Coxton Rd. in Duryea. The mine foreman was Chug Dawson. He assigned me to a crew robbing pillars. It was scary the way the coal would pop on the pillar as the weight above crushed it down. I also worked the #11 slope which we got to from inside the #10. It ran under the Susquehanna River, and boy I sure hated that area with all the water raining down from the river. Five minutes and you were soaking wet. Did you know the real thickness of the rock under the river when it broke through in the Knox Mine was only 16 inches thick? And they were way past the 100 foot thick barrier of coal that was to be untouched along both sides of the river. Also in the # 11 tunnel there are miners that were never found after a cave in. It was too dangerous to try and get them out. Farther up the mountain, above the #10 was the #52 slope

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Carl: Did you work any Old Forge coal mines?

Steve: Ya, I worked the Russell shaft just off South Main St. along the Lackawanna River. The last 2 weeks were spent removing the water drainage pipes and pumps. The mine foreman called me two weeks later and said they lowered the cage into the shaft and the water was 75’ deep.

I also worked the Austin and Panzatti Mines in Austin Heights.

One time I remember I was working with another miner, and he noticed coal dust falling from the roof. He could see the dust because he had a new bright battery lamp. Well, he said, “Steve, lets go take a break in the side tunnel and have a smoke”. About 2 minutes later the whole roof over the area we were working came down. We would have been crushed to death.

Another time we were working the end of a slope. I was using a compressed air drill when a motor man lost control of his motor car and trip of cars. He jumped off the motor car and started yelling to get out of the way. I was trying to save the compressor drill as they were expensive, and couldn’t get the drill out of the hole. My helper had to push me to the other side of the slope as the motor car crashed into the face at the end of the slope. It crushed the dynamite box we were going to use. How it never exploded I will never understand. We surely should have died that day.

When we were working the Panzatti mine which was in part of the old Austin workings we found bore hole tags dating back to 1898. One day we reached a 25’ roll of coal. Boy, it was something. We shot it Monday and loaded coal for a week.

Carl: What kind of dynamite did you use?

Steve: For rock we use mostly 40% dynamite. It has 40% nitro in it, and was very hard to handle. You would get headaches from handling it with bare hands. For most coal we used blasting powder. It was not as strong but easier to use. We used to carry 12 to 15 sticks in our belt and trousers on our way into the mine.

Carl Orechovsky June 1, 2008.