Each edition Mountain Top resident Joe Sainclair will share a photo with Mountain Peaks readers.

This week, Sainclair expored a little bit of Mountain Top history.

Operating from 1903-1933, The Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton Railroad’s tracks ran right through Nuangola adjacent to what is now The Ice House Pub. While there are several ruins of this former rail line in the Mountain Top area, perhaps the largest is what was called The Cannonball Tunnel. Pictured is the southern end, first in 1993 while still open and then again in 2021 after being gated and blocked by a huge mound of fill to protect a rare species of hibernating bats that live inside. The northern end of the tunnel is buried somewhere under interstate 81.

Sainclair, a Crestwood graduate, teaches English and public speaking at the school and has been an avid explorer of nature and abandoned ruins since high school. He’s married and has two children in the district. You can find him on Facebook and YouTube at JTS Explorations.