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WINDBER, Pa. – A coal mining company is buying a small museum where artifacts are displayed from the 2002 rescue of nine western Pennsylvania miners who were trapped underground for more than 78 hours.

The Rosebud Mining Co. is paying $250,000 for the Windber Coal Heritage Center, about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and will set up its own nonprofit to take control of the exhibits, said David Kahley, president and chief executive of The Progress Fund, which was selling the museum Monday.

Rosebud, based in Kittanning, is not affiliated with any of the mining companies involved in the rescue of Quecreek miners who were trapped underground in Somerset County from July 24-27, 2002. The miners were trapped by water that rushed into their mine after they dug into an adjacent, abandoned mine that was flooded.

Rosebud officials did not immediately return a call for comment on the deal.

The Windber museum had been owned by The Progress Fund, a nonprofit that helps fund tourist and historical sites. The museum opened in 1998 but had cut back its hours due to funding cuts from the state and other sources and planned to close until Rosebud stepped in, Kahley said.

"Five years ago the museum was open 40 hours a week, nearly every week. Funding cuts had kept it open only weekends during the summer months" for the last three years, Kahley said. "If you have a museum and you barely open the doors, what advantage is that?"

Rosebud learned of The Progress Fund's plans to close the museum through some contacts in the coal mining industry and, instead, bought the museum to keep it open.

"Rosebud, with its commitment to the industry, is in a far better place to tell the coal story than we ever were," Kahley said.

Rosebud operates 15 deep mines and six coal preparation plants in Armstrong, Beaver, Cambria, Clearfield, Elk and Indiana counties in Pennsylvania, and Tuscarawas County in Ohio.

The Windber Coal Heritage Center is located at 501 15th St., in Windber. A message on the musuem's answering machine at 814-467-6680 states that it anticipates reopening in April.