Our History

On February 17, 1914, the Pennsylvania Anthracite Section became the 10th local chapter of AIME, so this year is our 111th anniversary as a separate section.

We are descended from the 1871 founding of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. AIME came about from a meeting of the leading mining engineers of the time at the Wyoming Valley Hotel on South River Street in Wilkes-Barre, the heart of the anthracite mining industry in northeastern Pennsylvania.  We proudly celebrated our 154th annual meeting this past summer.

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Our Section originally covered northeastern and central Pennsylvania and stretched from Carbondale in Lackawanna County at the north end to above Harrisburg in Dauphin County, the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, the power source of the industrial revolution that changed America. As AIME grew, local sections were formed throughout the country and on February 17, 1914, the Pennsylvania Anthracite Section became the 10th local chapter of AIME, so this year is our 111th anniversary as a separate section.

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The former Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia Sections - SME became inactive over the years and SME members in those areas would attend Penn-Anthracite meetings. They requested that the Penn-Anthracite consider expanding and take in these orphaned Sections. After consultations with SME National, these areas on February 28, 2018, the Penn-Anthracite Section was joined by the counties that comprised the former Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia Sections - SME so we now encompass all of eastern Pennsylvania along with western and southern New Jersey.​

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