Shamokin Map
Shamokin is a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, at the western edge of the Anthracite Coal Region. (The original Saponi village of Shamokin was located near the current site of Sunbury, the seat of Northumberland County.) At the 2000 census the population was 8,009 residents. The city of Shamokin is bordered by its sister community, Coal Township, Pennsylvania, and by the world's largest man-made mountain, the Glen Burn Colliery Cameron Culm Bank. The colliery was in operation until the 1970s and was later dismantled.
Shamokin was incorporated as a borough on November 9, 1864, and as a city on February 21, 1949. In addition to anthracite coal-mining, it also had silk and knitting mills (the Eagle Silk Mill became the largest textile building under one roof in America), stocking and shirt factories, wagon shops, ironworks, and brickyards.
Most notably, Thomas Edison, briefly a resident of Sunbury, established the Edison Illuminating Company of Shamokin in the fall of 1882. Operation of the Shamokin station (located at the current Independence Street site of Jones Hardware Company) on September 22, 1883, at which time St. Edward's Catholic Church became the first church in the world to have electric lighting.
Nearby cities include Ashland, Klingerstown, Gordon, Riverside, Catawissa.