WVIA launches Kickstarter for documentary on mysterious tunnels under Pa. mining town

When WVIA producer Tim Novotney was 16, he and a friend found a tunnel in the basement of an old apartment building the friend had just moved into in Hazleton, Pa. 

“It was straight-up industrial-looking, and it was old and cruddy and there was just one bulb light,” he recalled. “But at the end of it was this big black iron door with three bars on it. It almost looked like a jail cell, and I said, ‘What is that?’ He goes, ‘That leads to the city beneath Hazelton.’” 

To their surprise, the door opened easily, revealing darkness. Realizing they would need flashlights to go further, Novotney remembers running so fast that he fell up the stairs. They found only candles in moving boxes in the apartment. 

The candles went out as soon as they returned to the room, and the pair decided to come back another day when they had found flashlights. That day never came. The friend eventually moved, and that was the end of it. Until now. 

Novotney aims to raise $15,000 on Kickstarter to produce a 30-minute documentary exploring the unmapped tunnels and a rumored speakeasy under Hazleton. The film aims to document these tunnels, which connected mines to homes and underground businesses, before they’re permanently sealed and forgotten.  

It will be the first time Novotney has explored the tunnels himself, but not the first time he’s produced a film about them. The proposed film builds on the success of his first 10-minute documentary about the tunnels that was part of the Pittston, Pa., station’s ongoing “Short Takes” series in 2024. The underground footage in that film came from an independent explorer who entered the tunnels through a sinkhole in 2018. 

The film also shows maps made by mining companies that detail the vast network of mine tunnels, which opened in 1836. Outlines of city blocks and street names on the surface show the tunnels snaking under downtown Hazleton and past West Hazleton. 

The maps show five levels of tunnels, the first at around 160 feet below ground and the deepest at over 800 feet below. But these maps show only tunnels and other facilities built by mining companies, like washrooms and an underground hospital.

The network also grew to reach many unmapped underground businesses and to include tunnels that connected miners to their homes and other aboveground locations such as churches and banks. Later, Hazelton’s elites used the tunnels to skirt Prohibition, and mobsters used them in the 1930s and ’40s.

Most of these additions — like a speakeasy Novotney said he has some confirmation exists — are only known through vague rumors and urban legends. The new film project will explore those tunnels and attempt to determine which stories are true.

The original film garnered over 2 million views across YouTube and social media and prompted comments and calls to WVIA from across the country. Novotney said neither he nor the station expected that. 

“I think people have this natural curiosity about themselves, where they’re like ‘What is below my feet?’” Novotney said. “Or, like, ‘What is out there that I don’t know about?’”

‘This history is going to be gone forever’ 

Novotney’s first film is now being shown in schools. He said he has heard from local officials who had no idea of the extent of the tunnel network before seeing it. 

Hazleton still produces coal today, but from surface mines. The 30,000-person town lies about 30 miles south of WVIA, which serves much of the northeastern Pennsylvania area. 

Novotney, who grew up in Hazleton, has worked at WVIA for nearly two years and has produced a number of other short films, including the “Short Takes” series that includes his first tunnel film and an Emmy Award–winning short documentary about a family navigating their daughter’s mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As the first film gained attention locally, some local restaurants and other businesses reached out telling Novotney about access points to the tunnels in their old buildings. He said Hazleton’s mayor and other local officials are also on board to help with access this time. 

Some at these buildings were hesitant still: drawing attention to their locations might attract unwanted visitors trying to explore the tunnels. To protect against this, Novotney has agreed to keep the locations of the access points mostly secret. Exploring the tunnels is dangerous, and not all businesses have constant security to keep people from trying to sneak into them. 

The goal, he said, is to tell the stories about the history of the private tunnels and their role in the town’s development in the early 20th century. That means attempting to verify narratives of bootleg mining, the Prohibition-era speakeasy connected to bank tunnels, a mob presence in the tunnels and more. 

“This was an illegal bar that they had below the city that a ton of people had to work on,” he said. “You can’t just dig out a bar underneath the city overnight, you know? So the whole town had to be behind it, just to hide this from the government officials for coming in and stealing their alcohol.”

There’s an added sense of urgency because some of the town’s oldest buildings with connections to the tunnel network could soon be knocked down and entrances filled in, permanently sealing decades of history behind them. Novotney worries that “this history is going to be gone forever” if it’s not documented now. 

And even if he doesn’t get access or enough footage from the private unmapped tunnels, Novotney said there’s lots from the first film to continue exploring. He pointed to segments that had to be cut, like an explanation of the dog tag system miners used to keep track of who had returned from their shifts. 

In the long run, Novotney hopes the film might inspire someone to fund a preservation of the speakeasy or other tunnel site for a tourist experience. 

“Hopefully it’ll bring in some tourism and … revenue to the city and bring in some excitement back to the historical generations that built the town and pretty much built America,” he said. “Because if it wasn’t for coal, we would never have had the Industrial Revolution.”

For now, though, his message to donors is simple: The project is not only exciting but essential to preserve the town’s history and educate future generations. 

“I think it might show them where America came from and the hardworking people that built this country,” he said. “And if we don’t do this type of preservation, then these people of the past will be forgotten. … It’s important to give some sort of historical preservation to our ancestors that helped us live the lives that we have today because of the hard work that they put in in the past.”

Choosing Kickstarter

The national attention prompted WVIA to attempt a more “globalized” fundraising approach to reach more people who might be interested. Novotney and his team thought Kickstarter’s name recognition in the crowdfunding space would be best for reaching viewers outside of Hazleton. 

“Hopefully it’ll bring a younger audience into our demographics, because this is sort of more of an explorer-type film,” he said. “So there are a lot of people that are of the younger audience that wouldn’t know about any of this history that might want to see it.”

The fundraiser runs through Aug. 29 and has so far raised over $5,500 from more than 35 supporters. Like any fundraiser on Kickstarter, it operates on an “all or nothing” model. If it doesn’t hit the $15,000 goal, supporters aren’t charged and the project won’t be funded at all.

It’s WVIA’s first Kickstarter, so it took Novotney and a team from the station’s marketing department six to eight months to figure out how to structure it. 

Novotney shot a promo trailer for the fundraiser’s web page, and WVIA has promoted the fundraiser on social media. He has also been interviewed by local newspapers and a TV station and is setting up appearances on local radio stations to talk about the project. 

The Kickstarter offers seven tiers of rewards to supporters, with a limited number of “All Veins” maps detailing the mine tunnels available to donors who pledge $75 or more. 

Of the $15,000, Novotney estimates $6,000 will go to production costs, $4,000 will go towards archival research and licensing fees, and the remaining $5,000 will go towards postproduction and marketing. 

Once funded, Novotney said he expects to take about nine months to produce the film, putting the release date sometime in late spring of 2026. He’ll mostly work solo, though a volunteer wants to help with audio and extra camera technicians can help film. 

With the Kickstarter underway, Novotney has already begun working to secure access to the tunnels and to find expert sources.

He estimates about a third of his work hours over these nine months will go towards the project but also says he plans on “dedicating a lot of sleepless nights to this, just to make sure it definitely tells the true story of the city and the things that need to be preserved.”

“I will get the footage necessary to tell the story because, what is that chamber that I just showed you?” he said. “You don’t know unless I tell you, and I don’t know unless I can research it, and that’s why we need a Kickstarter, so we can go and find all the information.”