Avondale Colliery

Leased by J. C. Phelps, a businessman from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1863 from Henderson Gaylord, William C. Reynolds and others, the mine's first entrance was a one-thousand-foot horizontal tunnel which failed to strike a new vein of anthracite.

That construction practice, which was standard for industry operations during that era, was employed to improve ventilation for miners by allowing small fires to burn at the bottom of the shaft which created an air-circulating draft.

[6][7] Two years later, miners at the colliery engaged in a seven-day strike against the mine's operator, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company,[8] in late August and early September of 1869.

[10] Shortly after the disaster at the colliery in September 1869, Philadelphia's Daily Evening Bulletin and the Lancaster Intelligencer described the mine's construction as follows:[11][12] "The masonry work, running down the shaft some twenty feet, was as strong as stone and cement could make it.

"The American Volunteer of Carlisle, Pennsylvania presented this description:[13] "The mine consists of two great gangways; styled the east and west planes.

The colliery was subsequently idled when the employees affected by the rule change refused to participate in the new work schedule and were fired.

[19] During the summer of that same year, the colliery reportedly employed a large number of men in mining a fresh vein of coal.