The Panther Creek Valley Foundation held its first Annual Haunted Mine Tour at the No 9 Mine in Lansford on Saturday and Sunday.

The first part of the tour started in the Mine Museum which was turned into a haunted house filled will volunteers dressed in costumes and ready to scare any unsuspecting visitors.President David Kuchta said, "Excluding our festival, this haunted mine tour weekend created records for one day tours. We had to run tours every half hour instead of hourly to meet the high demand of visitors."Office Manager Jan LeVan said, "We unbelievably had 528 people take the haunted mine tours in the 10 hours we had the tours running." While riding inside the mine carts, passengers were surprised by scary monsters hiding in the darkness and jumping out at unsuspecting passengers. While inside the mine, passengers were escorted off the mine carts and through the dark mine tunnels displaying many terrifying items.Volunteers were dressed in creepy costumes and staged at various locations throughout the tunnels. They performed spine-chilling skits and even quoted frightening tales of mine tragedies. Large portions inside the mine were strewn with bats, spiders, rats, fake body parts, and more. They also had a laser show emanating from the ceiling to portray shocking creature-like effects. During one of the stops inside the mine, passengers were unnerved when an acting mad surgeon started to cut the leg off of a victim with a chainsaw inside the miner's hospital located hundreds of feet below the surface.Secretary and board member Dale Freudenberger, acting as a vampire tour guide stated, "Ghosts of those who worked in the mine generations ago are believed to still lurk deep inside." Kuchta stated, "This is the first haunted anthracite haunted mine tour in NEPA. A lot of planning and detail went into this one of a kind tour. The dedicated volunteers and tremendous support of the community were both key components to the immense success of our first annual No 9 Mine Haunted Mine Tour."