January 26, 2024 - A crew from Brayer’s Auto Service and Towing finishes moving an anthracite coal washer called a Menzies Cone onto a flatbed truck Thursday from the site of the former Moffat Breaker in Taylor. The coal washer is one of five coal mining artifacts from the former Moffat Coal Co. slated to be permanently displayed at Lackawanna County’s McDade Park in Scranton near the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. At right are more anthracite artifacts at the Moffat Breaker site.

Taylor Borough donated the mining relics. In total, McDade Park will receive a concrete support/monument, a coal separator/washer, a coal crusher, a fine coal washer and a shaker cam, according to the county.

Organized in 1927, Moffat Coal Co. operated one of the largest breakers in Northeast Pennsylvania, with its breaker in Taylor capable of processing up to 5,000 tons of coal in seven hours, the Scrantonian Tribune reported in its Oct. 6, 1957, edition. In 1957, the coal company had more than 3,000 workers with an annual payroll of more than $10 million, equivalent to about $108.4 million today.

According to a 2006 study published by the Doylestown-based Heritage Conservancy, the Moffat Coal Co. employed 4,200 workers during its peak of production in 1942, producing 150 million tons of coal. At the time, coal miners, on average, earned $25 per week — or more than $450 today.

The Taylor breaker closed in June 1969, according to the July 17, 1969, edition of The Scranton Times. At the time, county officials had already launched discussions to establish the coal mine tour.