A local historian and an anthropologist are still working to get the Shickshinny Ice Cave – an ancient Indian shelter that is currently buried under a culm bank – registered as a historic site, hoping the designation comes before a reclamation company begins digging into the coal spoil.
“Right now, everyone still is very positive about getting this done,” said Richard Kuchta, the historian who brought the site to the public’s attention after reading last July about a plan to reclaim the site.
Martin Reinbold, an anthropological principal investigator who is donating his time to fill out and submit an application for registration of the site with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said his efforts had been “on hold” because he is setting up new office space.
Reinbold said he expects to begin work on the application again soon.
Once used by Iroquois
A 1926 volume of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society’s Proceedings and Collections documents rock shelters in the region, which Kuchta, of Union Township, said are significant because the Iroquois used them when traveling or hunting in this area, as did the European immigrants who came after them.
The book dedicates a page to the Shickshinny Ice Cave. “On the west bank of the river, high upon the slope of the mountain and almost directly opposite the buried shelter, there is or rather was a cave, for it, too, has been buried out of sight under mine refuse. It was locally known as the Ice Cave because of the fact that in its cool recesses, ice would linger far into the summer,” the book states.
The article notes that spoons, pewter plates and other items from colonial days were reportedly picked up on top or partly buried in the black dirt of the cave floor. Kuchta said it was unknown back then that digging must be done 2 to 4 feet below the surface to retrieve older artifacts.
And because this particular rock shelter is a cave, Kuchta believes it could be prehistoric.
Kuchta noted several rock shelters exist in the area as well as a nearby American Indian village that he and Reinbold successfully had registered as a historic site. Several artifacts had been discovered there.
Kuchta fears any artifacts buried at the ice cave site might be damaged or destroyed without an archaeological survey being done prior to total site reclamation.
Plans to remove refuse
Susquehanna Haul and Drilling, a limited liability company based in Exeter, had applied in July for a “bank reprocessing permit” from the state Department of Environmental Protection for work on 25 acres of land in Shickshinny and Salem Township.
Susquehanna Haul President Mary Lever sent a letter dated Jan. 31 to Shickshinny Borough indicating that the company planned to begin work at the site “soon.” She wanted to keep borough officials updated because truck traffic will use U.S. Route 11 and state Route 4004 through Shickshinny.
Lever states in the letter that she expects about 16 truckloads of refuse will be removed from the site daily. There will be no blasting. “We will simply dig, load and remove the coal,” she said.
Steven McDougal, a review archaeologist/historic preservation specialist with the state Historical and Museum Commission, said removal of the culm bank “shouldn’t be a problem as long as they don’t dig down deeper than the level of the coal.”
Lever told a reporter on Friday the company is still awaiting some permits before the work can begin. She said company officials “don’t intend to go into the natural contour of the land at all.”
She also believes the company already got the go-ahead from a state historical perspective.
“We had to get clearance from the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission, so apparently they don’t think we’ll do anything damaging. If anything turns up, we’ll certainly bring it (to public attention),” Lever said.
McDougal said the facts that the project had to be permitted by DEP and that much of the land is owned by the state Game Commission could mean that both of those agencies could impose restrictions or requirements on how the project is carried out if the site is registered as historic.
Facts and figures
The culm bank itself covers about 6 acres of state Game Lands No. 260 in Salem Township and 1.6 acres in Shickshinny, according to the application.
Landowners in the application are identified as the state Game Commission for the Salem Township land and Dean and Donna Stair of Hanover Township for the Shickshinny land.
Minutes from a meeting at which the Game Commission approved leasing the land to Susquehanna Haul & Drilling note that the royalty value of the proposed project has been calculated at about $200,000. The minutes also stated about 1.8 million tons of refuse would be removed from the commission’s land. Royalty amounts were redacted from the lease.
DEP spokesman Mark Carmon has said removing the culm bank would be environmentally beneficial. He said culm banks are prime contributors to acid mine drainage water pollution because as rain water and melting snow runs off, it picks up contaminants from the coal refuse. It can percolate into the groundwater and into the mine pool.
Carmon has said it’s likely the company will sell the refuse to an energy-producing cogeneration plant.
Author: Steve Mocarsky | Source: The Times Leader [February 14, 2011]
