Percent-slope map showing historical anthracite coal-mining infrastructure at the northern end of the Lackawanna syncline, Wayne, Susquehanna, and Lackawanna Counties, Pennsylvania

Introduction 

Abandoned railroads and infrastructure from the anthracite coal-mining industry are significant features in abandoned mine lands and are an important part of history; however, these features are often lost and masked by the passage of time and the regrowth of forests. The application of modern light detection and ranging (lidar) topographic analysis, combined with field verification, enabled the mapping of these historical features. Waste rock piles and abandoned mine lands from historical mining locally appear as distinct features on the landscape depicted on the percent-slope base map. Abandoned, and in many places demolished, infrastructure such as breakers, turntables, rail beds, water tanks, tram piers, and bridge abutments, for example, were identified in the field and located with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. This percent-slope map shows the locations of many of the abandoned features from the coal-mining industry near Forest City, Pennsylvania, and preserves a time that was an important part of the industrial revolution and a way of life that has been quiet for over half a century.