Ground was broken Friday afternoon for the first new building at the No. 9 Museum complex in Lansford.

The first new structure will be a utilitarian building, known as a motor barn.

During the ceremony, Francis J. Karnish, president of the Panther Creek Valley Foundation, gave a history of the mine, saying it has a long and storied past. It was the last of the deep mines, having been sealed in 1972. It was first reopened in 1992 by a group of dedicated miners and mine history buffs who restored it to its present condition.

At the same time, the former Wash Shanty was reopened as a museum, going from an empty building to a crowded collection of not only mining material but items representing the everyday lives of early residents here.