Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Vandling, PA

Vandling is a small borough in the northeastern corner of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, sitting immediately south of Forest City, just across the line in Susquehanna County.

Vandling was incorporated in 1899, carved out of Fell Township after its roughly 145 families tired of being outvoted and underrepresented in township affairs by the larger settlement of Simpson.

The borough was named for A. H. Vandling, the longtime land agent for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, whose mining interests in the area were extensive.

Before it was Vandling, the village was called Clintonville, after the Clinton Coal Company, and lumbering was the area's first industry before coal was discovered nearby.

Nearly every family in early Vandling depended on the Delaware & Hudson and Hillside Coal & Iron Company mines in and around the borough.

Vandling's population peaked at 1,258 in 1920 during the coal boom and fell to 730 by the 2020 census; in 2010 the borough had 751 people in 309 households.

The borough covers about 1.3 square miles — roughly 800 acres — and borders on both Wayne and Susquehanna counties.

A streetcar line once connected Vandling with Carbondale, about five miles to the south, and with Forest City, until the line was abandoned in 1926.

Students in Vandling attend the Forest City Regional School District, the same district that serves neighboring Forest City.