Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum
On a rainy day in January, you are driving alone on an interstate. Up and down you go through mist covered hills, dark forests and tan, dormant fields. You are listening to a sermon about the fruits of the spiritual life on Christian radio, feeling ambivalent about religion. You come upon a broad valley, filled with cities and towns that look like urban New Jersey. Getting off the interstate, you pass narrow winding highways lined with strip malls, Industrial facilities, piles of scrap metal, and neighborhoods of densely packed, old wood frame houses. A downtown of grey concrete office buildings is visible a few miles away. You drive to a suburban park, and pull up to a cinderblock building like the least inviting public library you have ever seen. Only one other car is in the parking lot, on a Saturday afternoon. This is the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum. The valley you are in, home to Scranton / Wilkes-Barre, is the heart of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region. The name co