The EBT Archives is thrilled to contribute to the Robertsdale experience and support continued educational outreach activities at the Friends of the East Broad Top Museum and the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Museum.
The Archives will host a special lecture on the geology of Broad Top Mountain on Saturday, June 14. Clifford H. Dodge, retired Senior Geologist of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, will present a lecture “Some New Revelations on the Coal Geology of the Broad Top Region,” 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM held at the Broad Top Area Coal Miners Museum (704 South Main St, Robertsdale, PA 16674).
Dodge says, “The structurally complex, isolated Broad Top coalfield consists of Pennsylvanian-age sedimentary rocks containing several commercial, low-volatile bituminous coals. “Remarkably, despite a general understanding of the coalfield since the work of James H. Gardner (1913), the detailed areal geology has not been well studied or clarified until now.” Dodge will share the new, comprehensive study that the Pennsylvania Geological Survey (PAGS) started in 2017 which reveals “newly recognized or redefined mappable bedrock mappable bedrock geologic units in Broad Top.” The “identified coals and geologic units of the Great Trough Creek syncline (basin) in the East Broad Top field, where the mines of the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company operated, will be briefly discussed.”
At the FEBT Museum (570 South Main St, Robertsdale, PA 16674), a new exhibit, “Drill to the Core: In Search of Broad Top Mountain Coal,” gives a brief glimpse into the geology that makes up Broad Top Mountain, the use of bore hole drilling that produced core samples for the EBT, and the Hoffman Brothers Drilling Company, through related drawings and artifacts found in the EBT Foundation and Friends of the East Broad Top’s remarkable collections. The exhibit will open Saturday, May 3, and run until the end of the year.
