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 Post subject: Radio tomb?
PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 1:05 am 
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:07 pm
Posts: 10
Location: Carmel, NY
First time post. Sorry, longish post follows.

I would like to share a story, and see what you people make of it. I would like to know more about this - what may be true, what may be false. This is the story as I was told.

A friend of mine has a scrap yard in Pennsylvania, where he deals mostly with electronic castoffs from the military. His father was well known in the business for many, many years. Some time ago - 1980s? - a fellow military electronics dealer/scrapper located in Scranton, PA went thru a series of events that resulted in a huge amount of old military radios getting buried in a mine.

I am not sure of the fellow's name. He apparently used a set of underground mining bunkers, perhaps for explosives, as warehouses. He was also apparently not the most honest guy in the world. At some point he purchased a bunch of electronic components as surplus. Out to make money, he sold these, and they ended up being used in pacemakers. The problem is that they started failing - the parts he purchased were not up to spec. A failed pacemaker is, of course, a very serious problem. The medical industry traced the components back to him, and he ended up in a heap of trouble. At much the same time, the FBI caught his selling "interesting" military surplus to buyers overseas. Now in two heaps of trouble, he had a heart attack and died.

His assets just sat there, having no clear heirs, and eventually went into foreclosure or tax trouble, and a developer purchased it. When confronted with the bunkers full of stuff, his engineers told him that it would be next to impossible to demolish them. They did the next best thing - they buried them, and did not even bother to empty all the goodies out. And so hundreds of radios and electronic things from the 1950s rust away in the dark.

My friend seems to think that the bunkers are located under a park or tennis court complex in a recent (1990s) housing development.

My questions - do you think this is realistic? Can anyone add any evidence to this? Were any Scranton area mines reclaimed in such a way? It sounds too goofy to be true, but then I can not see anything that would really nail it down as false.

--
Will


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:56 am 
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
Posts: 6872
Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
it sounds like a story to me....... but you never know do you? if it was within the city limits of scranton itself, not neighboring communities but the city, it is probably not accessible. in the 70s they flushed all the mines under the city with crushed up waste rock to fill in the voids to reduce the possibility of subsidence. most of this flushing was "poke and hope" where they would sink 2 bore holes. they would blast the flushing down one with water and when it came out the other the chamber was supposedly full. in some instances they did controlled flushing. this is where they actually went in the old workings and took the pipes from boreholes and put flexible hoses on them. then they went into the workings and began filling. now, outside the city flushing was more spuratic. in some areas it was done extensively, other areas they missed entirely. we have been in old workings under scranton and some of the other valley cities, and have run into gangways, tunnels and chambers totally flushed shut. so, if by chance this story is true, then im going to doubt that you can still enter the mine in any way. however, there are dangers of all this old electronics rotting away underground and maybe osm, or dep would be interested in poking a bore hole down where it is said to be located if only to take an air quality reading to see if there is any seepage of dangerous chemicals, or see if the area is flushed. however, my opinion is its one of the many made up stories that got passed on from person to person and has evolved every time someone hears it.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:26 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:33 pm
Posts: 3080
Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
And also with the amount of countless mines throughout this area of PA, it would be impossible to guess, assuming if this was true, which mine it was buried in. It would be undoubtedly neat to find, but I'm sure it would be in terrible condition if it was found. The humidity inside of coal mines rusts everything pretty bad.

Miner Greg


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:34 am 
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Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2007 3:07 pm
Posts: 10
Location: Carmel, NY
I think I will see if I can get an exact location from my friend.

Breaking into the mine, if possible, would be interesting. It would be fun to see if any of the equipment that is "Export Packed" would survive mine conditions.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:04 am 
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Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:41 pm
Posts: 2919
Location: Hard coal region, PA
If you found a location or an access to the mine we'd be glad to help gain permission to enter the site. It could be a really good find, but it's also good to have permission for something like this. Chances are if it is still accessable, its hidden somewhere under lock and key. Usually people are pretty receptive.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:09 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:17 pm
Posts: 74
Location: Harveys Lake
dont even bother, def.a myth and even as youve said if it werent, all the stuff would be rust.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:32 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:41 pm
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Location: Hard coal region, PA
it would be cool to see something like that if it turned out to be true.. Theres lots of stories like that so i'm sure there had to be some underground storage like that somewhere...


i heard some guy from Wilkes Barre had a jewelry / cash bunker no one ever found near Pine Ridge from the 1930-40s..... but it's probably all corroded and worthless by now anyway..right?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:43 am 
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Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:17 pm
Posts: 74
Location: Harveys Lake
wow lets get digging thee then buddy, interesting because p.r. was worked in 1960 even kind of stupid to put cash and jewels there, ill take your word for it tho and start out at dawn for this treasure.thanks man.

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