Lucerne Mines, PA

The name usually appears as Lucerne Mines, though Lucernemines is the older form, and both point back to Indiana County’s coal country. The community grew around the Lucerne mining plant, which developed into a large operation with three mine openings, a steel tipple, and a central power house. Within fifteen years of opening, it was being described as one of the most complete coal plants in the country. That is a lot of industrial weight for a place now identified on maps as a census-designated place.

Lucerne’s operation also reached beyond the mine mouth. By 1920, its power house supplied electricity to the Rochester & Pittsburgh mines across Indiana County and to the Indiana Street Railway system, while cleaned coal moved out by both the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania railroads. The old coke works and mine complex left a deep mark on the surrounding landscape and on the families who made a living there. Lucerne Mines reads today as a community name, but its strongest local thread is still the scale of the coal enterprise that built it.