After over a year in development, the Coal Mining Exhibit is set to open to the public at the Grove City Area Historical Society & Museum on June 3rd. At 6:30 that evening Pam Hummel and Sonni Zambino, the architects of the exhibit, will lead the evening’s program. Designed to feature Grove City area coal miners and their families, this interactive exhibit features their stories, interviews with numerous mining families, a virtual reality trip into a mine, and a mine locater program that permits you to check your address to see if a mine ever operated under your home. The speakers will also talk about the research that brought this project to fruition.

The early miners were English, Welsh, Polish, Italian, Scottish, and Irish immigrants leaving abject poverty in their homelands and seeking a better life in America. Their toil deep underground, while contributing significantly to the county’s industrial momentum, took a huge toll on their families. Many of those miners lost their lives. A great many traded the poverty of their homeland for the poverty of indebtedness to the ‘company store’. Listen to their story and take a trip down into the mine as the girls in the picture above are doing. Be present at 6:30 p.m. June 3, 2025 at 111 College Ave., Grove City to hear the story and experience the exhibit. This is a free presentation, refreshments will follow, and the facility is handicap accessible.