Appalachian History A coal obelisk in a river triangle On a small wedge of ground in Baxter, just north of Harlan, a black obelisk rises beside the road. Locals call it the Coal Monument. It stands at the junction where neighborhood streets and state routes braid together near the meeting of the Cumberland River’s forks.

Appalachian History Series What it is On the east side of Main Street in Wheelwright, Kentucky, the Wheelwright Masonic Lodge building rises in brick with a pedimented doorway, a semicircular window above the entrance, and brick quoins at the corners. The structure was designed by architect Leland Becker and dates to 1942.

Forgotten Appalachia Series A coal town takes shape Wheelwright sits at the head of the Right Fork of Otter Creek in southern Floyd County. Before the mines, this was an isolated corner of the Big Sandy valley. In 1916 the Elk Horn Coal Company established a camp at the confluence of Hall and Branham branches. Early housing was makeshift, then frame dwellings rose as supplies came in over the mountain from Pike County.

Abandoned Appalachia Series A school in the bend of Beaver Creek Wayland sits in the hills of Floyd County, Kentucky, a coal town whose footprint shows up neatly on the U.S. Geological Survey’s 7.5-minute Wayland quadrangle. The quadrangle places the school site and gym in the narrow valley bottom, with the town hemmed in by steep ridges that channeled community life toward the schoolhouse and its court.

Appalachian Figures Few figures connect Kentucky’s small-town gyms to the college game quite like Robert G. “Bob” Wright. He captained Marshall as a player, molded Ashland’s Tomcats into a state champion, then steered Morehead State to the top of the OVC before finishing his public-school career as a principal in Pike County.

Appalachian Figures A Kentucky start with a global reach Peter Ault Tinsley was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, on January 21, 1939. He earned a B.A. from Hobart and William Smith in 1961, completed a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton in 1966, and joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Board while finishing his doctorate. After a three decade career in Washington he later taught at the University of Cambridge and at Birkbeck, University of London.

Appalachian Figures Jack Hatfield Smith came out of Pikeville, Kentucky, worked his way through the Dodgers’ farm system, and for three late seasons in the early 1960s took the ball in some awfully big moments.

Appalachian Figures Pikeville beginnings John Paul Riddle was born in Pikeville in 1901 and came of age while aviation was still a dare. He graduated from Pikeville College Academy in 1920, a few years before airplanes became a common sight over the Big Sandy.

Appalachian Figures A Pike County racer who took Daytona Thomas Ferrel Harris grew up to be a stock car lifer with deep eastern Kentucky roots and a talent for high-speed drafting. He was born on October 8, 1940, in Seale, Alabama, and spent his adult life in Pike County, Kentucky.

Appalachian History Series A curious death in Greenbrier County In late January 1897 a Lewisburg weekly carried a short notice about a young wife’s death. The Greenbrier Independent identified her only as “Mrs. Shue,” reported the date, and moved on. Few readers could guess that Elva Zona Heaster Shue’s passing would become one of Appalachia’s most retold stories. Local memory says a ghost pointed the finger at a killer.

Appalachian History Series April 5, 2010 Just after three in the afternoon at Montcoal, West Virginia, a methane ignition inside the Upper Big Branch South mine became an explosion that swept through the workings. Twenty nine miners were killed, and two survived with injuries. Federal investigators later said the disaster was preventable. What investigators found Federal and state teams reconstructed the blast and its causes.