Coal Mining History in Blair County, PA

The ghosts of Blair County’s coal mining history are stirring just miles from the iconic Horseshoe Curve.

In the overgrown woods lies what is left of Glen White, one of the many abandoned coal mining towns that once powered America's steel industry.

Now, a dedicated group of local volunteers is fighting to pull this piece of our past back from the brink of oblivion.

Leading the charge is local historian Kevin Stiver, a man so connected to the forgotten town he’s been called its unofficial mayor.

Stiver's passion for Glen White is deeply personal, driven by a desire to honor the families who lived and labored there before the town was erased.

The town's heart was its rows of beehive-shaped historic coke ovens, which were constructed in the 1890s.

These ovens baked coal into coke, a vital fuel for the booming steel mills of Pittsburgh and Johnstown, placing Glen White at the center of the nation's industrial might.

But the prosperity was fleeting.

By the 1940s, financial troubles led to the town's sale to the Altoona Water Authority, and residents were given just one year to vacate.

What followed was a slow, silent reclaiming by nature.

Houses were sold for scrap, and the forest floor consumed the foundations, leaving only the crumbling coke ovens as monuments to a lost community.

Today, those ovens are in dire condition, choked by roots and hidden by a thick canopy of trees.

But a new chapter is beginning for this forgotten place.

The Altoona Water Authority has officially granted permission for a restoration project to begin.

Stiver and his team of volunteers are now planning work days, set to start as soon as March, to clear the overgrowth and stabilize these historic structures.

The effort is more than just historical preservation; it's about reclaiming a story.

Descendants of Glen White residents have expressed their happiness that the town's legacy will finally be told.

The goal is to create a historical attraction where visitors can walk among the ovens and connect with the powerful coal mining history that shaped Blair County.

For those who feel the pull of this local history, the call for volunteers is out to help breathe life back into the ruins of Glen White.