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Server Time:
2024-04-30 02:15:16
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 seicer
     
Location: New York
Gender: Male
 |  |  | A trip through eastern Kentucky
< on 1/5/2010 4:27 PM >
|  | | | There are days that I like to hit the open road and explore. I just wish my planning skills were somewhat better. Granted that I can navigate the back roads very well and I rarely get lost -- relying on my Delorme atlases and forgoing modern GPS conveniences, and that I can drive the narrow highways without flinching at a passing coal truck, but I underestimated the time it takes to go from one point to another.
On Sunday, I explored an area along the Kentucky Route 15 corridor, including Jackson and Hazard, with Ashley and Branden.
The day started off interesting. I drove up to the Campton High School, which opened in 1942. It was the first publicly funded high school in Wolfe County, constructed during the Great Depression with funding from the Federal Works Project Administration (WPA). Of course, the doors were locked and well secured, and I managed ended up driving off of a large sidewalk, nearly getting stuck in the process.
Traveling off of the main highway, we stumbled across the Buchanan Fuel Krypton Loadout. The Krypton Loadout was a small surface coal mining operation one mile west of Krypton. It is located along the CSX Eastern Kentucky Subdivision, formerly part of the Chesapeake & Ohio. Constructed in 1975, the mine was marked as active in 2002.) It has since closed but may reopen under the International Coal Group.
Coal would be transferred to a conveyor to a stacking tube, which would dump coal onto an even surface so that it could be pushed into a conveyor in a tunnel.
From there, the coal would be analyized for impurities and then shifted to a flood-loader.
The loader would funnel the coal into a 100-car siding for the C&O.
Small, yet interesting because I have not studied or really gotten close to a tipple or loadout in a very long time.
We set off afterwards to search for coal camp communities and other abandonments in the tangling mountains of eastern Kentucky, but found very little to nothing. Abandonments tend to be demolished fairly quickly, and coal companies are eager to remove processing plants and other facilities for liability reasons. We did come across one larger school, in Hazard, which only closed in 2005. Structurally, it is in good condition although the roof leaks considerably. It's amazing how far it has degraded in only a few years.
Library
Books from 2004.
Classrooms are generally empty or full of chairs and debris.
Science classroom in the addition.
Chemistry classroom.
Front entrance.
Never forget.
It was only 15F outside and my hands were numb. I ran around grabbing exteriors just to say I have some in collection.
The newer gymnasium, full of trophies and other assorted sundries, is also abandoned but well sealed.
You can view more photos and read more of the Napier School by clicking through.
Even though I logged a considerable amount of miles on my vehicle, I had an enjoyable experience hanging out with two friends, exploring in extremely cold temperatures and dining at Frances's Diner. The fried cheese and broccoli balls were delicious!
Abandoned |
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mANVIL
Gender: Male
| | Re: A trip through eastern Kentucky
<Reply # 1 on 1/5/2010 6:01 PM >
| | | | Nice writeup. Good to see someone else tromping through that area of the country. During my last 2 trips into the region almost all of the abandoned tipples I photographed 2006 - 2008 timeframe were demolished or reactivated. Turns out it's very difficult to get permits to mine coal so active coal companies would buy out all the abandoned mines simply because the permits were not yet expired. They demo the tipple's for scrap and like you mentioned liability then sit on the land until it's profitable to mine again.
I can't tell you how many schools I've found similar to the one you posted. It seems like every mid sized coal town down that way has a closed school built during the Depression that is completely falling apart. And I would rarely see an active school to replace them. I don't know where the hell the kids down there go.
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seicer
Location: New York
Gender: Male
| | | Re: A trip through eastern Kentucky
<Reply # 2 on 1/5/2010 6:51 PM >
| | | | Well, this school -- along with three others, were consolidated into one mammoth facility a few years back.
Yeah, I hear you about coal properties. I have a slew of properties to check out -- I live near the edge of all this, so it's not a terrible drive for me. But comparing a 1989 USGS map (and the current GIS data) isn't the same as being on the ground. So much gets demolished and scrapped so quickly -- or idled such as that tipple. Even though the strip mine was played out a few years ago and the property has become deteriorated, the entrance sports two signs: one that has fallen down and is obviously from the original tenant (Buchannan Fuels), the other which is brand new (ICG).
Meaning that there is an active permit out there to mine further on the land -- probably a mountaintop removal site. I searched for the MSHA ID, and it's not yet in the database, so it is something up and coming for 2010. The database is usually refreshed every month or so.
Many of the coal camp towns are gone -- from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were several large ones I wanted to check out that date to the underground mine days, but valley fills from mountaintop removal sites have buried many of these.
For instance, compare Leatherwood from 1989 to today's aerial. Nothing left 
Abandoned |
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