WILKTSBARRE, a city in Pennsylvania, the co. scat of Luzern co., on the left bank of the n. branch of the Susquehanna river, and on the Lehigh and Susquehanna, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and the Lehigh Valley railroads; pop. '80, 23,339. It is near the center of the famous Wyoming valley, and the beautiful scenery around it attracts many visitors in the summer. Horse railroads are on the streets, which are lighted with gas. The court-house, a fine building in the Romanesque style, stands in the center of the city, where the chief business streets cross at a diamond shaped square. The city contains banks, a county prison built of stone at a cost of $200, 000, a city hospital, a home for friendless children, a seminary for girls, and a public library. Nine newspapers are published, of which two are dailies and two German. The rooms of the historical society contain collections of antiquities, and specimens in natural history, etc. The city is the home of a cultivated society. The great deposits
of anthracite coal around Wilkesbarre have built it up. Anthracite coal had been taken out before the revolution. The Red-ash mine was opened in 1807. The production for the last 30 years has been enormous. There are 8 great mining companies, with an annual capacity of 4,500,000 tons, and employing over 12,000 persons. The so-called "mammoth vein" is 201 ft. thick. Some of the richer Wyoming veins average 80 feet. The whole n. field in the Lackawanna and Susquehanna valleys is supposed to contain over 2,000,000,000 tons. The city, which was founded in 1772 and became a city iu 1871, was named in honor of John Wilkes and col. Barre for their advocacy of the rights of the colonists.