Abandoned Appalachia Series A Mid‑Century Push for Modern Utilities In the years after World War II, small cities across the southern Appalachian coalfields raced to install the public works that bigger towns already took for granted. Whitesburg’s answer was a stout, cinder‑block water‑treatment plant erected at the foot of School Hill, just yards from Main Street and the North Fork of the Kentucky River.

Abandoned Appalachia Series
 


 A Mid‑Century Push for Modern Utilities

In the years after World War II, small cities across the southern Appalachian coalfields raced to install the public works that bigger towns already took for granted.

Abandoned Appalachia: The Old Whitesburg Water Treatment Plant

Appalachian History Series In the depths of the Great Depression, as rifle fire echoed through Harlan County’s hollows, a four‑page weekly tabloid fanned the flames of war. The Harlan Torch, financed by the coal operators it championed, turned ink into ammunition—painting striking miners as foreign “Reds” and Sheriff J. H. Blair as a defender of God, country, and coal.

Appalachian History Series
 


 In the depths of the Great Depression, as rifle fire echoed through Harlan County’s hollows, a four‑page weekly tabloid fanned the flames of war.

The Harlan Torch: Anti‑Union Propaganda in “Bloody Harlan”

Appalachian History Series Introduction On the fog‑soaked morning of May 14 1892, rifle‑shots rang out atop Pound Gap on the Kentucky–Virginia line. Within minutes five members of moonshiner Ira “Bad Ira” Mullins’s caravan lay dead, another gravely wounded, and the gunmen slipped into the hardwood forest.

Appalachian History Series
 


 Introduction

On the fog‑soaked morning of May 14 1892, rifle‑shots rang out atop Pound Gap on the Kentucky–Virginia line. Within minutes five members of moonshiner Ira “Bad Ira” Mullins’s caravan lay dead, another gravely wounded, and the gunmen slipped into the hardwood forest.

The 1892 Pound Gap Ambush of Wise County

Appalachian History Series Strategic Context By the icy winter of 1863-64, Cumberland Gap in Union hands formed a doorway into the Virginia-Tennessee-Kentucky corner. Acting on instructions from Brig. Gen. Orlando B. Willcox, Col. William C. Lemert ordered Maj. Charles H. Beeres to ride east with four companies of the 16th Illinois Cavalry and a section of the 22nd Independent Battery, Ohio Light Artillery (three guns under Lt. A. B. Alger).

Appalachian History Series
 


 Strategic Context

By the icy winter of 1863-64, Cumberland Gap in Union hands formed a doorway into the Virginia-Tennessee-Kentucky corner. Acting on instructions from Brig. Gen. Orlando B. Willcox, Col. William C. Lemert ordered Maj.

The Battle of Jonesville – The Frozen Fight

Abandoned Appalachia Series Crossroads in Coal Country Smith Garage once stood at 192 State Highway 72 in Baxter, Kentucky—an unincorporated hamlet where KY-72 meets the old alignment of US-421 at the confluence of Martin’s Fork and Clover Fork, head-waters of the Cumberland River. Mid-century travelers approaching the junction first glimpsed the black-shining Harlan County Coal Monument, a blocky obelisk of quarried coal

Abandoned Appalachia Series


 Crossroads in Coal Country

Smith Garage once stood at 192 State Highway 72 in Baxter, Kentucky—an unincorporated hamlet where KY-72 meets the old alignment of US-421 at the confluence of Martin’s Fork and Clover Fork, head-waters of the Cumberland River. Mid-century travelers approaching the junction first glimpsed the black-shining Harlan County Coal Monument, a blocky

Abandoned Appalachia: The Smith Garage of Harlan County

This is the Fourth in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times.

Abandoned Appalachia Series
 

One of the most telling monuments to the evolution of education in Eastern Kentucky is the old M.C. Napier High School, perched by the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Hazard.

Abandoned Appalachia: M.C. Napier High School of Perry County

This is the First in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times.

Abandoned Appalachia Series

Perched along U.S. Highway 421 in Baxter, an unincorporated hamlet at the KY-72/US-421 split just north of Harlan, the Jones Motel once beckoned travelers with a neon sign, a small hillside swimming pool, and the promise of a cozy night’s rest according to several posts in the ‘I Grew Up in Harlan’ facebook group.

Abandoned Appalachia: The Jones Motel of Harlan County

Appalachian History Series Salt, Strategy, and Civil War Kentucky In the fall of 1862, the American Civil War surged into the salt‑rich hollows of Perry County. Confederate armies had just retreated from the state after the bloody Battle of Perryville, yet detachments and partisan bands lingered in the southeastern mountains, hunting provisions the South could no longer import. Chief among those essentials was salt. Without it, armies starved;

Appalachian History Series
 


 Salt, Strategy, and Civil War Kentucky

In the fall of 1862, the American Civil War surged into the salt‑rich hollows of Perry County. Confederate armies had just retreated from the state after the bloody Battle of Perryville, yet detachments and partisan bands lingered in the southeastern mountains, hunting provisions the South could no longer import.

The Battle of Leatherwood: Kentucky’s Mountain War

Appalachian History Series A Center Sparked by Two Lifelong Educators When Dr. Edsel T. Godbey arrived in Cumberland in 1959 as the first president of what would become Southeast Kentucky Community &amp; Technical College (SKCTC), he saw more than a campus-in-waiting tucked against Black Mountain’s northern flank.

Appalachian History Series
 


 A Center Sparked by Two Lifelong Educators

When Dr. Edsel T. Godbey arrived in Cumberland in 1959 as the first president of what would become Southeast Kentucky Community &amp; Technical College (SKCTC), he saw more than a campus-in-waiting tucked against Black Mountain’s northern flank.

The Godbey Appalachian Center of Cumberland

Appalachian History Series A Newspaper Born in the Fire of Bloody Harlan In early May 1931 thousands of miners in Harlan and neighboring Bell County, Kentucky, walked off the job to protest brutal conditions and another round of wage cuts.

Appalachian History Series
 


 A Newspaper Born in the Fire of Bloody Harlan

In early May 1931 thousands of miners in Harlan and neighboring Bell County, Kentucky, walked off the job to protest brutal conditions and another round of wage cuts.

The Voice of the Miner (1931 – 1932): The underground press of Bloody Harlan

This is the Third in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times.

Abandoned Appalachia Series

– Bledsoe Mining Company

 Introduction

Bledsoe Mining Company, later Bledsoe Coal Corporation, sat in eastern Kentucky’s hills. It once anchored the local economy. Its headquarters were in London, Kentucky, with mines in rural Leslie County. For hundreds of families, Bledsoe meant livelihood.

Abandoned Appalachia: Bledsoe Mining Company

This is the Second in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times.

Abandoned Appalachia Series
 

– The Beschman (Putney) Lookout Tower of Harlan County High on Pine Mountain’s crest in eastern Kentucky, a rusted steel skeleton stands watch over the ridges: the Beschman Lookout Tower, better known by its local name — the Putney Fire Tower.

Abandoned Appalachia: The Beschman (Putney) Lookout Tower of Harlan County

Appalachian History Series On a gray Tuesday morning—May 5, 1931—a handful of laid‑off coal miners shouldered rifles along the Poor Fork Road just east of Evarts, Kentucky.

Appalachian History Series
 

On a gray Tuesday morning—May 5, 1931—a handful of laid‑off coal miners shouldered rifles along the Poor Fork Road just east of Evarts, Kentucky.

The Battle of Evarts: Harlan County’s First Shot in the Coal Wars

Appalachian History Series On a sweltering July dawn in 1973, the sleepy hamlet of Brookside woke to the rumble of coal trucks and the sight of cardboard signs nailed to wooden staves: UMWA ON STRIKE—NO CONTRACT, NO COAL. By nightfall gunshots echoed off the Clover Fork valley walls, and Harlan County was once again poised to earn its nickname, “Bloody Harlan.” Over the ensuing thirteen months,

Appalachian History Series
 
 

On a sweltering July dawn in 1973, the sleepy hamlet of Brookside woke to the rumble of coal trucks and the sight of cardboard signs nailed to wooden staves: UMWA ON STRIKE—NO CONTRACT, NO COAL. By nightfall gunshots echoed off the Clover Fork valley walls, and Harlan County was once again poised to earn its nickname, “Bloody Harlan.” Over

The Brookside Strike: When Women Took the Picket Line 

Abandoned Appalachia Series

Nestled in the hills of Wise County, Virginia, stands an abandoned orphanage, its concrete façade half-swallowed by trees and briars. Built early in the 20

 th

century, in an era before modern foster care, county orphanages typically provided shelter, education, and basic necessities to local children in need.

Abandoned Appalachia: The Old Wise County Orphanage

Appalachian History Series
 

On December 30, 1970, a powerful coal dust explosion ripped through the Finley Coal Company’s interconnected Nos. 15 and 16 mines on Hurricane Creek near Hyden in Leslie County. Thirty-eight miners were killed. One man, A. T. Collins, survived after the blast hurled him out of the portal. Another miner, Harrison Henson, was outside the mine when the explosion occurred.

The Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster of 1970

Forgotten Appalachia Series
 

Tucked away in downtown Harlan, Kentucky, an unassuming patch of grassy ground at 206 East Clover Street conceals one of the county’s oldest and most intriguing burial grounds. Once hidden behind the walls of a crumbling Ford dealership building, this “secret cemetery” has only recently come back into public view—and with it, the faded chapter of Harlan’s early settlers and their storied feuds.

Forgotten Appalachia: Hidden Pioneer Cemetery on Clover Street of Harlan County

Repurposed Appalachia Series
 

Tucked in the quiet valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the town of Andrews, North Carolina, offers more than just a scenic rail bike ride—it offers a journey through history. Andrews Valley Rail Tours was launched during the town’s Oktoberfest festival in the fall of 2022, after the Andrews Chamber of Commerce partnered with Judy Fitzpatrick to develop this concept in 2021-2022.

Repurposed Appalachia: Andrews Valley Rail Tours: Pedal Through Scenic History

Appalachian History Series
 


 How a wagon note, a courthouse ambush, and a hidden rifle shot pulled two Kentucky counties into years of bloodletting until state power forced a weary peace.

Setting and background In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the mountain counties of Clay and Harlan balanced self reliance with thin institutions.

The Baker, Howard, and Turner Feud, 1898 to the 1910s

Appalachian History Series
 

A county at war with itself By the turn of the twentieth century, Breathitt County, Kentucky, had become a byword for political killings and courthouse cliques. The flashpoint came on May 4, 1903, when attorney and United States commissioner James Buchanan Marcum was shot at the entrance to the Jackson courthouse.

“Bloody Breathitt” and the Courthouse Murder of J. B. Marcum

Appalachian History Series
 

Kentucky on the Brink In late 1861 Kentucky stood in a dangerous middle ground. The Commonwealth had remained in the Union, yet communities were split in loyalty and both armies moved to control key valleys and roads. In the Big Sandy country of the eastern mountains, Confederate Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall crossed in from Virginia to recruit, while Union commanders rushed to push him back. Col.

The Battle of Middle Creek: Eastern Kentucky’s Turning Point

Appalachian History Series Introduction Martins Fork Lake is a small mountain reservoir tucked into the Smith community of Harlan County, Kentucky. Completed in 1979 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the 340-acre lake sits at river mile 15.6 on Martins Fork, just southeast of the town of Harlan.

Appalachian History Series

Introduction Martins Fork Lake is a small mountain reservoir tucked into the Smith community of Harlan County, Kentucky. Completed in 1979 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the 340-acre lake sits at river mile 15.6 on Martins Fork, just southeast of the town of Harlan.

Martins Fork Lake: How a Concrete Dam Changed a Harlan County Valley

Repurposed Appalachia Series
 
 
 


 The Early Years

Tucked away in Burke County, North Carolina, the Henry River Mill Village tells a story of industrial ambition, close-knit community life, and cinematic fame.

Repurposed Appalachia: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Henry River Mill Village

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Being perched between 4,100 and 4,223 feet on the rugged spine of Stone Mountain, the modern High Knob Observation Tower greets each sunrise with a gleam of galvanized steel on sandstone. Long before it became a scenic waypoint for motorists and hikers near Norton, Virginia, High Knob’s summit served an urgent purpose: keeping watch for wildfire.

Appalachianhistorian.org

Abandoned Appalachia: M.C. Napier High School of Perry County

Abandoned Appalachia: The Jones Motel of Harlan County

Abandoned Appalachia: The Beschman (Putney) Lookout Tower of Harlan County

Abandoned Appalachia: Bledsoe Mining Company