08/25/2026
There's an interesting history behind the Archbald Pothole. If you're looking for one last summer day adventure, you may have just found it!
🕳️ There is a hole in the ground in Lackawanna County that is deeper than a three story building is tall, and almost nobody outside northeastern Pennsylvania knows it is there.
The Archbald Pothole was found by accident in 1884, when miners working a coal vein underneath the surface broke through into the bottom of it and had gravel and rock come pouring down on them. What they had run into was a glacial pothole, drilled straight down through solid bedrock thousands of years ago by meltwater spinning stones around and around at the base of the ice sheet. It runs roughly 38 feet deep and it is wide enough at the top to swallow a small house. 🧊
Today it sits in a quiet state park off Route 6, with a railing around the rim and a path that takes about two minutes to walk. There is no gift shop and no crowd. You just stand there looking down into a hole that ice and water spent a very long time drilling while Pennsylvania was buried under a glacier, and then you get back in the car and keep going.
Have you ever stopped at the Archbald Pothole, or is this the first you are hearing that Pennsylvania has one?