014Brilliant Sky

Mine Scenery / Brilliant Sky

sfp
2/2/2004

The bleak scenes of the coalfields were just as often counterpoised by views such as this one, typical in the special light on Spring Mountain. This picture was taken on a late January afternoon in 2002 with only a one megapixel Sony Mavica digital camera. Viewpoint is directly north of McAdoo, PA, looking slightly southwest into an amazing sunset, directly across Rte. 309 from the big Audenreid stripping.

James Wong Howe, world renowned movie camera man, was the cinematographer for the movie, "The Molly Maguires". He remarked about the unique quality of light here when he was involved in making the movie at Eckley in the late 1960s. This movie, one of his favorites, was was shot over five months in the coal mines of Pennsylvania.

(Some of the text above from this source).

Sunset, January1, 2004, looking toward Ebervale, PA off the Hazleton - Freeland road.

Same location as the picture at left, only a few minutes later, having moved the camera a little to the southwest.

View east toward Jeddo, PA, January 1, 2004. This is a working dragline. Stripping continues here off the Hazleton - Freeland road, on the road to Stockton and Coxeville.

January, 2002 at the west end of Church Street in Audenreid, PA. View is to the southwest covering a large array of ruins and broken strip mining equipment near the site of the old #4 colliery. Shelley's "Ozymandias" comes to mind.