A view from an old picture post card of the Short Mountain Slope of the Lykens Valley Coal Company, on the western side of Bear Gap, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, one of two slopes built to haul coal up from the mines. A large wheel under the housing was steam powered. Coal cars were pulled to the top and then released allowing gravity to send them to a nearby breaker, where refuse was removed and the coal sized in preparation to be sent to market.
A feature of the Short Mountain Slope was that it was a “double slope” containing two sets of tracks which went into the mine, allowing coal cars to go up and down at the same time.
This slope was in operation from 1870 to 1915 and was replaced with a shaft containing elevators to hoist the cars up from five levels below.
The men in the photo are not identified.
The photo was taken looking south. The slope went into the mountain in a northward direction. The caption on the card is: “S. M. Slope, Lykens, Pennsylvania.”
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