January is Anthracite Mining Heritage Month.

The event is a regional observance celebrating the history, culture and impact of the anthracite coal region.

It includes commemorations, such as the Knox Mine Disaster, and focuses attention on local museums and historical societies.

I’ve always been fascinated by anthracite mining culture even though I have no family connection.

My ancestors did not work in mines. They were farmers and merchants from Carbon and Monroe counties. A few others worked at New Jersey Zinc in Palmerton.

But I grew up in hard-coal Schuylkill County, playing on silt banks and exploring abandoned collieries. So I’m familiar with the mining industry.

This year, one of the highlights of the annual observance will be an examination of the Knox Mine Disaster of 1959.

It occurred when River Slope Mine workers at Port Griffith were ordered to dig coal illegally, far too close to the river bottom.

On Jan. 22, ice-laden waters of the Susquehanna broke through overhead, sending 80 men scurrying through tunnels beneath the river.

Twelve miners never made it out. Rescue was impossible.

Did they drown? Or flee to an air pocket out of harm’s way? We’ll never know.

Interest in the disaster and other mining tragedies continues to run high.

For instance, a showing of the “Knox Mine Disaster” documentary scheduled for today is sold out.

On Saturday, Jan. 24, from 2-4 p.m., the Anthracite Heritage Museum, Scranton, will host the Annual Knox Mine Disaster Commemoration.

On Sunday, Jan. 25, the Knox Mine Disaster Annual Memorial Mass, Commemoration, and Walk will take place in Pittston.

Those events provide a good foundation in learning more about the tragedy. I highly recommend them.

I’ve hiked to the disaster site three times since 2020 to research and take archival photos for my files. It’s a haunting location wedged between a sheer rock wall and the river.

The location alone is filled with it a sense of danger.

The Knox Mine Disaster wasn’t the only mine tragedy in northeastern Pennsylvania. In fact, it wasn’t even the largest or most shocking.

But it was a turning point in that the flooded mines essentially put an end to deep mining in the Wyoming Valley.

Other activities scheduled for the month include presentations, lectures and author events about coal mining history, the coal and iron police, breaker boys, rail history, anthracite insurgency and other topics.

More details are available online at the Anthracite Heritage Museum website.

Over the years, I visited and researched most of the mining tragedy sites in northeastern Pennsylvania.

I’ve written stories about many, including follow-up lessons learned and the price paid for in a dangerous industry that helped build the country.

I think it’s important. To try to understand where we’re going, we need to know where we’ve been.