tour ed mine

Tour-Ed Coal Mine

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Tour-Ed Coal Mine - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Coal Mine Map

Explore the tour-ed park map.

Tour-Ed Mine & Museum sits on 13-acres with various attractions for your entertainment. The map below will help you navigate throughout the grounds when planning your Tour-Ed Mine & Museum adventure. There are park maps at the admission office for your use.

Our entrance is off of Ridge Road at the Tarentum exit 14, off of RT 28 north of Pittsburgh. The entrance provides ample room for vehicles and school buses to safely navigate drop off and pick up points and accommodate parking.

A beautiful on-site 13-acre park named in dedication to Tour-Ed Mine & Museum’s Founder, Ira Wood. Visitors and groups are welcome to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy the scenery.

This is the entrance to the mine where you will start your mine tour.

The museum houses thousands of antiques and historical pieces on display for our visitors. The museum has restrooms, first aid and a souvenir shop with snacks.

The covered picnic pavilion is located in the Ira Wood Park and can be reserved for birthday parties, school field trips and groups to establish a home base and eat lunch.

Visit an authentic mine rescue vehicle.

Local bands perform on the Ira Wood Stage Pavilion located on the edge of the Ira Wood Park.

See how a real saw mill cuts timber to form wood plank and other various cuts of construction lumber that was used to sure up the mine shaft as the miners cut deeper into the earth.

Tour-Ed Mine has an above ground strip mine area where visitors can see how strip mining is performed with large strip mining equipment.

The Park area has an authentic Pittsburgh & Shawmut Railroad Caboose.

See what is was like to live in a log home in 1785.

An early 1900s horse drawn farm wagon and crafted wooden sleigh are on display.

Our souvenir shop has really “Coal” stuff for purchase. Unique gifts and souvenirs for any age, candy, drinks novelties and snacks. Make sure you stop in.

There are various restrooms located at the museum and between the picnic pavilion.

There is plenty of parking at the entrance to the park. Our parking lot can facilitate any type of vehicle including multiple school buses.

If needed, we are equipped with first aid stations at the entrance and in the mine and in the museum.

Uncovering Pittsburgh’s Mining History at the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum

It is well known how Pittsburgh’s steel industry helped build the city, the region, and the country, but few think about the raw materials that are required to power such enormous factories.

While a variety of raw materials are needed to fuel the plants, coal was one of the most important. While coal is typically more associated with the anthracite fields of northeastern PA, there were (and still are) coal mines in western Pennsylvania.

The coal mined in southwestern PA was often turned into coke, which would then power the steel mills at places like Carrie Furnace at the Homestead Steel Works.

One of these coal mines was the Avenue Mine near Tarentum in the northeastern corner of Allegheny County .

Coal mining at this site began in 1850 and continued for more than 100 years. Finally, in the late 1960s, the mine was closed despite there being a large amount of coal still in the ground. In 1970, the newly-renamed Tour-Ed Mine as was open for tours and education about coal mining.

Today, the Tour-Ed Mine is still open for those wanting to go underground and learn more about the history of coal mining, how it was done, and how it impacted the region.

The Tour-Ed Mine is located atop a hill just off of Route 28 near where Allegheny County meets Armstrong, Butler, and Westmoreland Counties.

The above-ground portion of the museum features a cabin from the late 18th century that was moved to this spot in the 1970s and features a short, but rather old film about coal. While the cabin is neat to see given its age, the video probably isn’t worth watching unless you need to kill some time before the tour starts as most of the information is covered in the introduction given by guides.

The second building is where you buy tickets to tour the site, a gift shop, and the mine’s museum.

The museum features many great artifacts, but many lack signage making it a bit hard to decipher what the pieces are and how they fit into the context of the mine. However, there is a miniature model of the mine as it would look without the ground above it, which does offer some great perspective and helps you better understand the layout when you go underground.

The chance to go underground into a real coal mine is, not surprisingly, the highlight of any visit to the Tour-Ed Mine.

Tours start from the basement of the museum building and begin with a video that offers a bit of history on how coal is formed. While it is definitely a bit old, it does do a good job of showcasing the information.

Tours are led by old coal miners and they are able to offer a ton of fantastic information about how coal mining works and what life was like for the miners who worked here.

It’s also worth noting for those that may be leary of going inside an old coal mine, the mine is inspected daily by certified mine inspectors, and it is also regularly checked by state officials to ensure its integrity.

After grabbing hardhats (If you are over 5 feet tall, you’ll really appreciate having one), tours continue by hopping into a yellow mining vehicle that takes you deep into the mine. This vehicle sits quite low to the ground as the passageway into the mine is sometimes less than four feet tall.

If you’ve toured other coal mines in Pennsylvania, the trip in follows a flat path into the mountain like the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine Tour and the Number 9 Coal Mine in northeastern Pennsylvania.

After about half a mile, the mine car comes to a stop more than 150 feet underground in the heart of the mine.

Even with your hardhat, be careful exiting the vehicle as the ceiling is quite low here. This is a common theme throughout the mine. Fortunately, at every stop we made, I was able to either find a spot where I could stand without an issue or there was a bench I could sit on. (For reference, I’m 6’2″, so if you’re taller than me, you might have a bit of an issue. On the other hand, if you’re under six feet tall, you should be fine for the most part.)

There are a handful of stops on the walking tour of the mine, and at each stop, visitors are shown a different era of mining and how coal was removed from the ground. I thought this was an excellent way of showing mining history, and it really gave me an appreciation for how the technology changed and made the work of the miners safer and easier. 

My favorite part, however, was that each stop on the tour had working pieces of machinery. These ranged from small, hand-powered tools to very large automatic mining machinery. These working pieces of equipment really brought the experience to life, especially having visited other coal mines, like the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour in Scranton , that have great information, but more static displays.

All told, tours last about an hour, of which about 30 minutes is underground inside the mine. After exiting the mining vehicle at the end of the tour, guides show visitors a few more large pieces of modern mining equipment that are located next to the mine entrance. These newer pieces really complete the story of mining in western Pennsylvania.

Overall, I really found the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum to be quite interesting. While the museum could use a bit of modernization and extra signage, the time underground is well worth the cost of admission.

So, if you want to learn more about the industrial history of Pennsylvania or simply want to see what it’s like in a coal mine (It’s really different from a cavern), definitely take time to visit the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum in Allegheny County, PA .

Looking for more places to visit in the Pittsburgh area ? Check out the Depreciation Lands Museum , the Saxonburg Museum , the Todd Nature Reserve , and the Hyde Park Foot Bridge .

Tour-Ed Mine and Museum

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• Renaissance Hotel - One of the city's highest-rated hotels on Trip Advisor.
• Residence Inn North Shore - The perfect hotel for sports fans
• Hampton Inn and Suites - The only downtown hotel with free parking
• Hyatt Place - Great value near great attractions
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Jim Cheney is the creator of UncoveringPA.com. Based in Carlisle near Harrisburg, Jim frequently travels around Pennsylvania and has visited, written about, and photographed all 67 counties in the state. He has also traveled to more than 30 different countries around the world.

1 thought on “Uncovering Pittsburgh’s Mining History at the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum”

I found some great ideas close to our home. North of Pittsburgh. Thanks!

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Discover the Burgh

Take a Trip Into a Coal Mine at the Tour-Ed Mine & Museum

Published by Jeremy . Last Updated on August 14, 2020.

Disclaimer : Our site uses demographic data, email opt-ins, display advertising, and affiliate links. Please check out our Terms and Conditions . Pricing, operating hours, or menus may have changed since our initial visit and may not be reflected in subsequent updates. Please confirm these directly with any business or attraction prior to visiting.

Virtually everyone knows about Pittsburgh's steel history. You may even know that the city was a big producer of glass and iron as well. But did you know that the area was also a big coal producer too? 

While coal mining was necessary for steel production, there were numerous uses for this bountiful material found in the area- and coal mining boomed for several centuries.

One mine decided to close down in the mid-1900s, despite sitting on a large deposit of coal, and converted the area into an educational museum in order to highlight the history of coal mining in the region. They became the Tour-Ed Mine & Museum, and this spot has been operating educational tours for over 50 years!

The Tour-Ed Mine Offers a Glimpse into the History of Mining

A visit to the Tour-Ed Mine & Museum can be broken up into multiple phases.

When you first arrive, you'll be able to explore a small museum on the property featuring mining artifacts, exhibits of what life was like living in a coal town, and a facade of a general store that was owned by the mine itself. The latter is by far the most fascinating exhibit, because it highlights the fact that many early miners were not paid in currency, but rather credit to be used in the village where the mine owned virtually all the stores.

This sets the stage for what you see later, as working conditions for early miners was abysmal at best.

The second part of the museum experience is the tour, which begins with a few short videos showing what life was like for early miners and the challenges they faced, including child labor problems, low pay, and numerous health issues to name a few.

Finally, you head deep into the mine to see numerous exhibits highlighting how mining was performed from the early 1800s until today. This gives a great insight into the improvements made in mining technology and safety over the years (specifically in only just the last few decades), and since the tour guides are current and former miners it really helps drive home the point quite well.

Regardless of your views of coal mining in general, the Tour-Ed Mine & Museum does a great job at highlighting the history of mining deep inside a once-active coal mine. For that reason alone, I really enjoyed the tour.

The Mine is a Tight Space, But Not Too Claustrophobic

Now, it is worth pointing out that a trip into the mine is a bit of a tight space. Your journey into the mine for the exhibits starts with a people-mover that is only a few feet tall and goes on a rather tight trip down into the mine.

When you're seeing the exhibits, the ceiling is not much taller than about 5′-9″ (my height almost perfectly), and is only just a bit wider at most points as well.

As such, those who are claustrophobic may have reason to pause. However, the entire experience felt quite safe and controlled (other than the brief moment when the guide turns off the lights to show what real working conditions were like in the 1800s).

If you are not a fan of tight spaces, I would say that this tour is not the worst thing we've ever done. In fact, I would say it is more uncomfortable for taller individuals who will have to crouch down during the roughly 30-minute tour in the mine. Thankfully, there are also places to stop and sit at the various exhibits as well, so even taller individuals should be quite fine.

Overall, the Tour-Ed Mine & Museum is a great opportunity to learn more about what mining was like over the eras, and the museum does a fantastic job showing off mining history, challenges, and advancements. 

For those who want to take a deep dive into this fascinating topic, a visit to this museum is a must!

The Tour-Ed Mine & Museum is located at 3004, 748 Bull Creek Road in Tarentum, PA and is cash only.

After your visit , go grab a beer at the Leaning Cask , ice cream at Glen's Custard , or go hike at Deer Lakes Park !

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2 thoughts on “take a trip into a coal mine at the tour-ed mine & museum”.

How long does the mine tour take and what does it consist of, aside of (presumably) a ride in that yellow cart you show and the 30 minutes walk under a low ceiling?

The tour inside the mine itself is about 30 minutes and you get to see the historic equipment. But they also have a museum space outside of the mine itself that you can explore at your own pace when not in the mine. Most visitors will probably be there for 60-90 minutes depending on when they go into the mine.

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