For the last 53 years, the Pennsylvania Bituminous Coal Show in Carmichaels has become the showcase for the rich cultural heritage of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The summer calendar between Memorial Day and Labor Day is crowded with other events, but the Coal Show is different.

It alone is the celebration of a living culture, a way of life that is both part of our shared history and a part of the daily lives of thousands of people.

There are events that commemorate a brief span of years when civilization ended at the Alleghenies. The National Road Festival and the Covered Bridge Festival are reminders of a thriving rural economy in the middle of the 19th century.

And in many ways the Coal Show, which begins Saturday, is a celebration of our heritage when the hills of Washington, Greene and Fayette counties fueled the nation.

If that were all the Coal Show represented, it still would be a worthwhile event.

But during the evenings, hundreds of miners still attend. Many are young men and women, a new generation of miners who work behind the giant longwall machines deep under the hills.

Despite oft-repeated proclamations in this newspaper and others of the impending end of the coal age, the black rock is still king, and coal mining puts bread on thousands of tables.

For a number of years, Greene County has led the state in coal production, and last year local mines continued to produce coal at record levels.

Consol Energy's Bailey and Enlow Fork mines have been the first and second top-producing underground mines in the nation since 1993.

Foundation Coal Co. is setting record production levels at its Emerald and Cumberland mines.

We are fortunate that each year, as barges and train cars carry the area's coal to every corner of the country, the Coal Show reminds us that mining is more than mere history, and not all miners are retired.

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