Viva Chile! Celebrate the Miners' Rescue with a Mine Visit

I'm a coal miner's granddaughter (apologies to Loretta Lynn) so I've been following the saga of Chile's trapped miners with more than casual interest. One of my family's treasures is my pap-pap's (grandfather's) copper water canteen from his days in a coal mine outside of Tamaqua, Pa. I was pretty young when he died, but I remember him carrying a packet of Sen-Sen in his pocket and enjoying those chewy candy spearmint leaves. His nickname was Mugsy.

If you live in eastern Pennsylvania, you don't have to travel far to descend into a real coal mine. I recommend the No. 9 Coal Mine & Museum in Lansford, probably the newest mine tour in the area.
There's also the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train in Ashland, Schuylkill County, which has been around so long that I went there on a field trip when I was in elementary school.

Scranton is home to the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and the Anthracite Heritage Museum.

And BTW, Loretta Lynn will return to Penn's Peak near Jim Thorpe for a show in March 2011.