(Originally Girard Tunnel)
The East Bear Ridge Colliery was located at Mahanoy Plane in West Mahanoy Township on the lands of the Girard Estates on the north side of the Mahanoy Creek.
The
colliery was originally opened by a water level tunnel 1050 ft. in length by
the Pottsville & Danville Railroad Co. for the Girard Estate in 1834. The tunnel
started on the south side of Bear Ridge Mountain, passing through the Buck Mountain
and Little Buck Mountain veins of the Mahanoy Basin and then, in order, cutting
the top and bottom splits of the Mammoth, Skidmore, Seven Foot, Buck Mountain
and Little Buck Mountain veins in the Ellangowan Basin.
The tunnel was abandoned when the railroad ceased operations in 1837. The tunnel remained idle until 1863 when W.H. Sheafer reopened it and shipped 7,239 tons of coal in 1864. He was succeeded by the Tunnel Coal Co. in 1869, Sheafer, Hartz & Co. who continued mining to 1872 after extending the tunnel 240 ft. to the South Dip Mammoth vein they were succeeded by A.L. Mumper & co. who drove gangways 5500 ft. eastward and 3700 ft. west to the boundaries in 1879 which connected with the Colorado Colliery.
A slope was sunk 300 ft. long on the mammoth vein 100 ft. west of the tunnel and another slope was sunk 1184 ft. on the top split.
On Jan. 1, 1880, Myers, Mcreary & Co. acquired the lease and continued operating until Nov. 1, 1883 when the colliery & lease was purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co.(P&R I&C Co.) their lease was terminated Dec. 31, 1913, however, no coal had been shipped since Aug. 23, 1910 when the breaker was destroyed by fire. The total amount of coal removed to this to this date was 4,500,000 tons.
On June 1, 1914 a lease was granted to David R. James, of Shenandoah and William J. James and Benjamin F. James of Pottsville who on April 1, 1915 transferred their lease to the East Bear Ridge Co. They reopened all the gangways that had recoverable coal and drove a tunnel 950 ft. long on the 1334 ft. level cutting the top & bottom split of the Mammoth vein and extended the Skidmore Gangway east 400 ft.
They also erected a new breaker of 1500 ton capacity daily, a boiler plant of 1350 horsepower, installed a substation to furnish electric power for electric haulage motors and lighting purposes, erected carpenter-blacksmith and machine shops, a stable, a pump and engine house and constructed a surface track 7500 ft. in length to bring coal from the eastern end of the colliery to the new breaker.
The total shipments of coal from the East Bear Ridge Colliery were 6,093,317 tons as of 1928.