For decades, Lansford was a company town. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company owned the land, planned the streets and utilities and provided police coverage.

Many of the maps that it created around the turn of the century are preserved at the Lansford Historical Society Museum, but due to their large size, they are normally stored where visitors can’t see them.

But the museum recently brought the maps out of storage for a temporary exhibit. The large blueprint documents show the massive operation on the surface, as well as deep below the ground in Lansford.

The maps, according to Bruce Markovich of the Lansford Historical Society, are great for researching the history of the town and the company.

“A map is so much better than a picture. There’s much more context,” he said.

The society’s maps are blueprints created by engineers for the coal company. The company’s engineers laid out the streets, water lines and sewers in the borough. They designed everything down to the sewer grates — which are now being replaced along Route 209 as part of a repaving project.

“Their engineers were outstanding, what they were able to do. They had some of the finest engineers available,” Markovich said.

The old company

There are many historical buildings and artifacts left in the borough, but even more have been lost to time. The maps show exactly where the buildings, railroads and mineshafts were located.

One map shows the original coal company powerhouse, which is now buried by a coal bank.

“The coal company had their own power plant long before they had a power plant in Hauto,” Markovich said.

One map shows the network of mineshafts that extended hundreds of feet below the ground. The maps show air chutes, mule ways, and the numerous tunnels that were dug to mine the coal.

“These were like small cities. The underground was even more complex than the surface,” he said.

The mine track engine house had 11 different tracks to store rail cars — something that would have only been seen in large cities at the time.

Train town

Lansford’s rail infrastructure was far beyond what other towns had at the time. In 1850, long before passenger rail crisscrossed the country, passengers could ride a steam-powered train from Lansford to Summit Hill. The track was built to convey coal up to Summit Hill so it could be transferred to the Switchback Railroad.

Markovich said the coal company loved the latest technology, and in 1850, a steam-powered railroad would have definitely fallen in that category. It would be the equivalent of seeing some kind of spacecraft today.

“Imagine you came over from the old country, and you see this thing belching steam. You must have been in amazement,” he said.

Lokie Tunnel

For people who are interested in the recent project to seal up the “Lokie Tunnel” beneath the intersection of Springgarden and Patterson streets, the maps are a treasure trove.

Several maps show the looping path of the lokie tunnel, and how the town was developed around it.

The tunnel was built in 1884. It was last used in 1929. It first carried coal to the No. 9 breaker, then the No. 8 breaker.

It was large enough for one track — about 10 feet high, 10 feet wide, and a total of 171 feet long.

It brought coal from a tunnel in Coaldale called the Spring Tunnel to the coal breakers in town.

The tunnel walls were built by stone masons with the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.

The Lansford Historical Society Museum is currently hosting an exhibit of maps made by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Maps from the 1890s show the tunnel curving around the intersection of Patterson (Route 209) and Springgarden (Route 902).

According to Bruce Markovich, the tunnel was lit in 1888 to prevent people from hanging out inside. At the time, Markovich said, high school students would use the tunnel as a place to skip class.

The tunnel’s role in the coal industry came to an end in the ’20s, with the advent of trucks to carry coal.

An incident in 1925 may have also sped up the demise of the tunnel. A Lansford resident named John Orsulak, aptly nicknamed “Speedy,” averted a potential disaster. Orsulak saw that a group of coal cars had broken free from a train and started drifting back toward town. He outran the cars, and threw a track switch, causing the cars to derail. If they continued unchecked, the cars were headed straight for an occupied building in the shop yards.

The map display will be up at the museum through the month of October. The museum is located at 117 E. Bertsch St. and is open 6-8 p.m. Thursdays and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Fridays.