"Smokestacks and Black Diamonds tells some of the best-known and some of the least-known stories of the time when Carbon County was one of the most important regions in America. Joan Campion and contributing authors Vince Hydro, Michael Knies, Lance Metz and Rita Plotnicki have traced the history of the county from its frontier days to the present. George Harvan, the pre-eminent photographer of Pennsylvania's anthracite region, has contributed a chapter of his most memorable work. Stories of miners and immigrants, the Molly Maguires, the company towns of Mauch Chunk and Palmerton, Glen Onoko in "The Switzerland of America," letters home from soldiers in nineteenth-century wars, the rivalry between Mauch Chunk and Lehighton to become the county seat - these are but a few of the topics presented in this fascinating book. Numerous photographs enhance the text." - source