A $4 million historic preservation and mine reclamation project has started taking shape at the No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum in Lansford.

The framework of the first of two giant mine ventilation fans now rises high above its foundation outside the mine entrance along Dock Street.

Work on erecting the second fan will start next week, said Zachary Petroski, mine superintendent and president of Panther Creek Valley Foundation, which oversees the mine and museum.

The historic fans, along with the steam engines that powered them, will be used to tell the story of anthracite mining and how it fueled the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century.

The fans, which measure 35 feet and 28 feet in diameter, had been sitting on the grounds of the museum for years waiting for restoration and placement in a new exhibition building.

“When it’s scattered about in pieces, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Petroski said walking down to the construction site Thursday. “Now, it makes a little more sense.”

Huge fans similar to these could be found throughout the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, he said. They circulated air deep inside the mine and protected miners from hazardous gases underground.

“This fan was designed by a French engineer,” Petroski said. “Theophile Guibal is who invented this style of fan. This was the most common style in the 19th century.

“Pretty much everybody had Guibal fans of one design or another, or one size or another,” he said.

The ventilation fans going on display at the No. 9 are among the few survivors from that mining era and were saved from Dorrance Colliery in Luzerne County which ceased operation in 1960.

The Dorrance Colliery was located along the Susquehanna River in Wilkes-Barre, just north of the Luzerne County Courthouse and adjacent to the Wilkes-Barre and Hollenback cemeteries.

The DEP’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation is administering funding from the federal Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining, for the project and the state Historical and Museum Commission is also monitoring its progress for historic accuracy, Petroski said.

“They want to see that we are doing it as tasteful, and as true to its original design as possible,” he said.

“Our iron workers are doing a really good job with this,” Petroski said, standing near the towering 1883 fan. “Two guys can actually turn this. It’s that well balanced.”

All of the cast iron and steel had to be sandblasted, cleaned and painted, and minor repairs done to straighten any bent pieces, he said. All of the hardware was also replaced, he said.

The fan still needs to be tuned and aligned, and its wooden blades crafted from tongue-and — groove, pine planks will be attached with more than 400 steel cleats, which are also being custom replicated, he said.

A concrete pedestal still needs to be poured on-site for the steam engines, which will be situated between the two fans, Petroski said.

The exhibit building will then rise up around the foundations for the fans, which are set into concrete wells more than 12 feet into the ground, and the concrete pedestal for the engines.

Petroski expects the building to go up fairly quickly, and then they can work inside throughout the winter on the display, which will include other pieces of mining history that the No. 9 has on its grounds, he said.

They hope to open the new museum building for the start of the No. 9 mine’s 2025 season, which is April 4, and begin educating visitors on an important aspect of mining history.