FOSTER TOWNSHIP -- It's the breaker that's breaking down.
Although it's not a functioning piece of coal mining equipment, the structure at Eckley Miners' Village near Hazleton represents part of Luzerne County's past.
"It was an industrial complex out here, but really the largest and the most dominant structure would have been the breaker itself," said Bode Morin, the site administrator of Eckley Miners' Village.
This breaker was never meant to last this long. It was originally a prop for the movie "The Molly Maguires," which was filmed at the village in the 1960s.
The structure was only meant to last a few weeks, but here it is decades later. However, it's not in good shape.
Morin wants to fix it up, but finding the money won't be easy.
"It's very difficult to spend money that's allocated for preservation on it because it's not a historic structure," said Morin.
The site administrator said, first and foremost, the place is a historic village, but it's important to preserve things like the breaker, which is also a part of this area's history.
"But as you can see, it's a really iconic structure and it was really the heart of every patch town in northeast Pennsylvania," Morin said.
With the height of anthracite coal mining behind us, members of the Luzerne County Historical Society call the breaker a tool to teach future generations.
"You only get so much from a textbook or so much from a picture, whereas if you have the actual artifacts, that's really a great way to learn," Mark Riccetti Jr., Director of Operations and Special Events for the Luzerne County Historical Society said.
Even though this breaker never actually broke coal, Riccetti said the structure has its own history.
"Quite a few people understand the story of the Molly Maguires, but they don't know that Sean Connery came down and made a movie about them right here, it was filmed on location."
For now, Eckley Miners' Village hopes to raise money to have an engineer check out the breaker.
"We'd like to either rebuild it or fix it in some way and give it some life span so it can be around another 40, 50 years," said Morin.
If you would like to donate, you can email Bode Morin at bmorin@pa.gov.