27 Small City Social & Cultural • Feature • Hazleton Integration Project and immigrants are “starting to settle in Hazleton for all of the same reasons that previous generations landed here,” Bob explains. In the foothills of the Poconos – where I-80 connects New York City to places westward – sits one of the only places in the United States where there are large deposits of anthracite or “hard coal”. During the nineteenth century, anthracite coal became one of the most important fuels for heating homes and powering industries in cities like Philadelphia and New York. Once the coal deposits were discovered and transportation routes expanded, companies rapidly opened mines across northeastern Pennsylvania. Along these routes has left a desolate landscape of extraction, where mining sucked out most of the natural landscape. Hazleton sits on a high plateau directly above several anthracite seams, which made it an ideal location for shafts and Downtown Hazleton (Discover NEPA)
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