In the News

With nearly 450 guests enjoying Coal Region heritage and culture, Eckley’s annual Patchtown Days Festival on Saturday, June 17, was an outstanding success! WYLN covered the event.

See you at next year’s Patchtown!

Check out WILK-FM’s “Special Edition” for details on Eckley’s upcoming Patchtown Days Festival. Between 10am and 5pm on Saturday, June 17th, Eckley will host live music, craft vendors, food trucks, a beer garden, and at 1pm, historian Vince Hydro discussing Eckley’s ties to the Lehigh Mining & Navigation Company. You won’t want to miss this annual celebration of regional culture!

WYLN has the scoop on Eckley’s recent grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will help Eckley design a research and learning center to revitalize the historic Asa Foster house.

Online architectural news outlet Archinect mentions Eckley’s recent grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding from the NEH’s Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Program will support design work for a new Research & Learning Center, to be housed in the 19th-century home of Eckley co-founder Asa Foster.

Visit the link above to read more about the museum expansion and design projects that are among the most recent round of NEH recipients.

WYLN spoke with Project Manager Chris Stokum and guests Philip Mosley and Van Wagner about Eckley’s March 12 Charter Day program, the significance of anthracite heritage, and how our region’s distinctive history still echoes in the present day.

Hazleton’s Standard-Speaker has the scoop on Eckley’s annual Charter Day celebration, which featured author Philip Mosley and musician Van Wagner. Many thanks to Mosley and Wagner for sharing their knowledge, talents, and passion for anthracite heritage with a packed house!

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WILK–FM’s “Special Edition” reported on Eckley’s upcoming Charter Day program. On Sunday, March 12, Eckley will celebrate Pennsylvania’s 342nd birthday with a talk by Philip Mosley, author of the recently published Telling of the Anthracite: A Pennsylvania Posthistory, followed by a concert of anthracite heritage music by Van Wagner. Eckley will be free and open to the public from 10am-5pm, and the free talk and concert will begin in the auditorium at 2pm.

The Hazleton Standard-Speaker announces the Spring re-opening of Eckley and its sister site, Scranton’s Anthracite Heritage Museum. Beginning on March 2nd, Eckley will be open Thursdays through Sundays from 10am-4pm. The Anthracite Heritage Museum will re-open on March 3rd and be open Fridays-Sundays from 10am-4pm.

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Penn State-Scranton Professor Emeritus Philip Mosley’s Telling of the Anthracite: A Pennsylvania Posthistory is the first book to examine the anthracite region in its postindustrial era. Eckley’s breaker gets a nod from the Pottsville Republican & Herald as the last of its kind. “Mosley is troubled by the disappearance of the physical remnants of the coal industry in recent times,” the Republican & Herald reports.

Dr. Mosley will visit Eckley at 2PM on March 12 to discuss his book and sign copies as part of our free event celebrating the anniversary of Pennsylvania’s original charter.

Eckley’s planned overnight lodging and research center developments were featured on WILK-FM’s “Special Edition” report. “It’s a step back in time visiting Eckley Miners’ Village. Project Manager Chris Stokum has details of plans underway to allow even more immersive experience.”

University of Maryland graduate student Kyla Cools has uncovered profound health disparities among colliery workers at Eckley, highlighting the biomedical dimension of the anthracite fields’ unequal class dynamics. Read more about Cools’s archaeological research at Eckley in her article “Material Culture and Structural Violence: Reframing Evidences of the Social Gradient in Industrial Contexts” (2022) to be published in the journal Historical Archaeology.

WYLN Hazleton’s Paula Reynolds sat down with Eckley Project Manager Chris Stokum to discuss innovative developments coming to the village, including overnight lodging and research facilities.

Check out the Lehighton Times-News, Pocono Record, and Hazleton’s SSPTV for more information on Eckley’s Free Day event: September 24, 2022, from 10AM-5PM! The site will offer guided tours, a genealogy resource table, flower bulb-planting, and at 2PM, a book-release lecture from author and Coal Region-native Mitch Troutman.

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission will offer free admission at its historical sites throughout the state on the 24th.

Kent Jackson reports on Eckley’s recent Appalachian Regional Commission grant, which will help us reimagine the historic Foster House as a cutting-edge research center and plan for other improvements to Eckley’s campus. Read about it at the Hazleton Standard-Speaker (paywalled) or the Pottsville Republican Herald.

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08) announces Eckley’s Appalachian Regional Commission grant as part of $578,000 in ARC funding that will stimulate job growth, tourism, and educational opportunity in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

“I look forward to … visiting Eckley Miners’ Village for their exciting programming that celebrates the rich history of our region,” said Cartwright. Eckley thanks Congressman Cartwright and his dedicated staff for their support!

State Senators David Argall (R-29) and John Yudichak (I-14) recently made a visit to Eckley. Senator Argall’s monthly TV program, The Argall Report, offers an excellent summary of their experience, covering the village’s unique perspective on industrial heritage as well as its promising future plans.

Hazleton’s Standard-Speaker and Scranton’s WNEP-16 capture the nostalgia and excitement of Eckley’s annual Patchtown Days, which returned June 18th and 19th, 2022, after a hiatus.

Lehigh Carbon Community College student journalist Laurisa Gruver penned a brief profile of Eckley that movingly encourages visitors to “walk in the footsteps of their forefathers.” Check out Laurisa’s work at the LCCC Paw Print.

A forthcoming book reveals the lives of Civil War soldiers who hailed from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region. Historian Melanie Akren-Dickson’s current research centers on John Williamson, an Eckley native who was among the casualties at the Battle of Savage’s Station. The little-known conflict claimed 1,500 lives but ended in stalemate near Richmond, Virginia, in 1862. Read more at the Lehighton Times News.

Left: (1862) Battle of Savage’s Station, 1862. June. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

Poconos-based singer-songwriter Don DiLego filmed the music video for his sparkling new single, “Dim Red Light (Make it Shine)” at Eckley on a bright summer evening. The video also earned Don (and Eckley) a spot on Rolling Stone‘s Best Country Songs back in June!