About 20 legislators from Germany - and a few from the United States - toured several local sites on Friday.

They especially focused on the region’s coal mining heritage.

The trip on the mining cars a quarter of a mile into the No. 9 coal mine in Lansford especially sparked conversation, including discussion about the dangers of deep underground mining.

“I live in a mining area in Germany,” said Ricara Budhe of Germany, “but they do open pit mining. They ended (deep underground mining) in Germany for a good reason in 2018.”

The trip was arranged by The Aspen Institute which brings together German and U.S. state legislators to facilitate an exchange of ideas about how to tackle shared policy challenges across the Atlantic on the subnational level.

They were led on the local tour by state Sen. David Argall.

The tour started at the Tamaqua Train Station and continued onto the No. 9 Mine and Museum in Lansford, the Lehigh Anthracite mining operations where they saw open pit coal mining, downtown Jim Thorpe where they toured the community in a trolley and the Panther Creek Coal Refuse Plant in Nesquehoning.

“The project gives participants the opportunity to engage with peers and experts from across the United States and Germany and to build new transatlantic networks,” Argall said.

He said the tour in Schuylkill and Carbon counties focused “on the region’s past anthracite coal and mining heritage and the work towns like Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua have done to revitalize their economies since the coal industry is no longer as prevalent in the region.”

U.S. legislators included on the visit besides Argall were lawmakers from Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico.

Zack Peroski, president of the No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum, led the museum tour including driving the train cars into the deep mine.

He explained the difference between strip mining and open pit mining.

Following the 20-minute journey into the deep mine, Budhe said, “It was very hard work. The trip was very impressive. It was interesting to hear about how the life of the miner was over 100 years ago.”

Although coal mining isn’t the major local employer it was a century ago. The visitors got a glimpse of the role it still plays in the regional economy.

John Hadesty, chief operating officer of Lehigh Anthracite, said more than 1 million tons of coal are mined locally each year and those mines have 75 years of reserves.

Hadesty said the United States has 61,000 coal miners with 3,100 coal mines registered throughout the country. He said this is small compared to China, which has over 4 million coal miners.

Some facts about coal mining were also given at the No. 9 museum by Alex Sherreba, vice president of the museum, and Dale Freudenberger, a volunteer.

In Jim Thorpe, Argall explained how the town got its name and how it was once called Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk. He mentioned Millionaires’ Row (Race Street) and how important tourism is to the community.

The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute’s stated mission is to drive “change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.” The institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C.