On February 11, 1808, Wilkes-Barre Judge Jesse Fell created the first iron grate in the valley to successfully burn anthracite.Luzerne County witnessed a population boom with the expansion of the coal mining industry.[6] With the completion of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, the canal industry, which had existed for no more than one generation, faced a rapid extinction.The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad moved Wyoming Valley anthracite from its various coal fields to White Haven over the Appalachian Mountains that had posed such a challenge to settlers for 150 years prior to the development of these rail lines.Once the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad reached White Haven, an extensive transportation network expeditiously and economically delivered the Wyoming Valley's anthracite to a waiting market.Water released from the Francis E. Walter Dam makes the river deep enough for boating.The main ancestries reported by White Haven residents on the 2000 Census were Polish, with 17% of the population, Italian with 13%, Irish with 10%, Slovak with 8%, and German with 6%.