Since I became a member of the UGM forum, I have noticed a significant rise in members and postings . Originally, I was forum member #97 at the time. There are currently 290 members. In addition, the founding members are actively involved in all phases of mining , mine exploration, restoration of buildings and equipment etc. They are to be commended for their ongoing efforts to preserve our mining heritage and their formation of the Abandoned Mine Research organization furthers this aim. All of this costs money and maybe UGM should consider fund raising. Perhaps this can be set up as an online store on the UGM site. Items such as the UGM T- shirts, the upcoming mining video , and perhaps “bricksâ€

I'll let Chris respond to this one.

I would, however, like to thank Greg and Mike Hetman and the whole IronMiners team for so generously allowing UGM to share their forum site. We felt it would bring the whole community of mine explorers, enthusiasts, and historians of both hard rock and coal mines closer together to communicate and share thoughts and experiences at one central web location at IronMiners.com. It takes a lot of time and work to run a forum, and we deeply thank them!

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

I will ba back you up on this Banks it was a great idea that all kept with one big forum vs. several smaller coal forums. This forum is very lucky to have great people that are very passionate for mine preservation & the equipment that once operated at mine sittes. I know for a fact that a majority of the major mine preservationists are on this forum. We also thank Greg, Mike & their awesome team for this great forum.

We definately need some fund raising. I know our group Ohio Vintage Coal Co. which is 501c3 spends a lot of money from our own personal pockets moving coal mine locomotives, mining equipment, 30,000 lb steam hoists etc. gets very costlty. We want to start building our main infrastructure & restoring some of our existing buildings & I know track contruction will be very costlty. We have the man man power & lots of materials but are lacking in several specific areas of materials. We are up for any ideas from grants to donations. We have started a website but have a ways to go www.ohiovintagecoal.com . Our dedicated team will travel all of the country as well as Canada to save equipment before it is too late.

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

hey wayward, well thanks for the kind words and ideas. right now we are finishing up the 501c3 paperwork to send in. 28 pages and narratives to write, a lot of fun anyways, i know a ton of people who want this video so that will be great! t-shirts are a great idea and as soon as we get the 501c3 tax stuff back we can start fund raising. right now its all our of our own pocket. we just today shelled out another $550 bucks for the mine car we are building and its not done yet. so, yes funding will be nice. we do have some other ideas, and running tours is a good boost for us, as long as we can keep the locals coming. the ohio boys are ahead of us in this game and are doing a fine job, they already have their 501c3 stuff done and it makes it alot easier to get equipment donated tax free to the person donating it, well the only way. they have a crazy collection going and we would like to do a similar thing here in the anthracite region......... provided they leave us some stuff so hopefully we will get this finnished up in the next week or so and get it mailed out. we have alot of ideas and options and cant do any of them till we get our funding, so hopefully in the next year alot of good will come to amr!

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Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!

Chirs, like the idea of shirts, maybe even hats. What if you take some of your photos and try to see them to local establishments?? Anyho, think what you guys are doing is fantastic. Not too many people would put the effort and time to do what you do. Cant wait to see whats ahead for the UGM.

we've been thinking about trying to get some photos in some local places. The Molly Maguires in olyphant would be a cool place. The anthracite heritage museum, the mine tours. Theres a lot of places that would probably like to have some on their walls.

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

As I said before, I'm here if you need me for anything.
And I'd buy a shirt.



~S

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"Heyna!"