A photo of the construction of the pulverizing mill of the Lykens Power Plant, Short Mountain Colliery, Lykens Valley Coal Company, Bear Gap, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, taken on 8 June 1921.
The view is looking north. Short Mountain rises at the left. Coal or Thick Mountain is in the distance at left (behind the two chimneys of the power plant). Big Lick Mountain rises at the right. The rail tracks to the right of the pulverizing plant were used by the colliery to move their coal cars from the mine shaft to the breaker which was located just south and west of the pulverizing mill.
The purpose of the mill was to refine the culm into a usable fuel for the power plant. A trestle was used to move the coal from the culm or tailings bank which was located just north of Lykens. The bank was said to contain more than two-and-a-half million tons of potential fuel, which could be used by the power plant, but was generally unsuitable for the market. Rather than burn usable, marketable coal to generate steam power for the colliery, the operators decided to construct an electrical power plant which would burn the refuse at the site, thus creating a cheaper form of energy. The operation was successful in that the electricity generated was more than enough to power the colliery. Electrical supply lines were strung through the gap and over the mountain as far as the Williamstown collieries supplying them with electrical power and the surplus generated was enough to provide power for Lykens and Wiconisco.
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