On July 24, 2002 in Sommerset, Pennsylvania nine men were working in the Quecreek Coal Mine inadvertently drilled into a neighboring abandoned mine. This caused an estimated 50 – 60 million gallons of water to rush into the mine where they were working. The miners were then trapped 240 feet underground for more than 3 days. What happened at the Quecreek Coal Mine in 2002 brought attention to the importance of mining companies having easy access to historical mining maps.
In 2003 the DEP has partnered with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. They invited all available parties with mine maps depicting sites of abandoned mines to contribute them for the creation of an abandoned mine map database. As a result over 12,000 maps were obtained. The maps came from both public and private entities.
After the Quecreek incident five different state agencies were scanning and preserving maps. The need for a single database which would combine the efforts of all the individual databases was realized. The Pennsylvania Historical Underground Mine Map Inventory System (PHUMMIS) was started. Upon its completion the goal of the PHUMMIS database will be to provide easy access to historical map data and link information from all of the different databases information to a single a digital map image.
Map archivists from the University of Pittsburgh receive the mining maps and prepare them for scanning into the database. Preparing a map for scanning that may not have been unrolled for over 100 years is a very delicate and meticulous process. The archivists have received thousands of individual maps.
The aged maps are first carefully put inside something called a “humidity dome.” It is a large square machine topped off by a glass dome. Once inside the map’s fibers absorb moisture and become more pliable. During this process the archivists are able to carefully unroll the map by hand. This prevents cracking or breaking.
Once a map is successfully unrolled it is then placed between heavy sheets of wool and polyester so it dries evenly and flat. If the map is permitted to simply air dry it will roll back up into its original shape. The next step is to pull off any tape and repair any holes with cotton muslin and ethylene vinyl acetate glue. The removal of coal dust and other grime from the surface of the maps is done with special erasers.
Once the maps are repaired and they are then taken to where large scanners can be used to scan and digitize the mine maps. The next step is entering information about each individual map into the database.
According to the DEP the ultimate goal of the project is to make all known mine maps available online for public use.
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