Mining organization marks sesquicentennial
WILKES-BARRE, Luzerne County – A national mining organization, which got its start in the northern fields of the Anthracite Coal Region, marked its sesquicentennial Sunday with a plaque unveiling.
The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Incorporated (AIME) was formed on May 16, 1871, when a group of mining engineers met at the Wyoming Valley Hotel in Wilkes-Barre.
Sunday, exactly 150 years afterward, AIME members, along with local dignitaries, gathered at Public Square a few blocks away to commemorate the occasion.
Wilkes-Barre Mayor George C. Brown and U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright provided remarks, along with AIME leadership and Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration leadership.
SME Penn-Anthracite past chairmen Mike Korb and John Ackerman unveiled the plaque, which sits immediately beneath another commemorating AIME’s quasquicentennial.