GILBERTON, SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

Gilberton is a borough in Schuylkill County and located in the Pennsylvania Coal Region. The Coal Region is a term used to refer to an area of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Appalachian Mountains. The region contains extensive deposits of anthracite coal that span several counties. The evolution of the anthracite coal region began hundreds of millions of years ago. At that time, Pennsylvania was home to wetland forests; as the vegetation died it accumulated into vast quantities of decomposing organic matter. Over the ages, tremendous pressure from layers of sediment transformed this peat like substance into coal. In regions where the heat and pressure were particularly intense the resulting coal was a very hard type, consisting of nearly pure carbon content. It is commonly known as anthracite.