Coal, Music and History in Eastern Kentucky

Coal is still king in Eastern Kentucky

After a week with the family in Georgetown, we headed towards Eastern Kentucky, a very different country than the horse pastures and affluence of the central part of the state. The hills are gray with early winter, making the narrow hollows where folks live look very dark and dreary. Everything is either on a hillside, or on the ledges cut by road building and coal mining operations, and many of the houses seemed barely livable. People we talked to were very concerned with the future of their area, given the “attitude of the current administration” toward coal. We saw big billboards sponsored by the Friends of Coal that proclaimed, “Coal Keeps the Lights on in Eastern Kentucky.”  We visited several coal museums and found the sentiments of many people summed up in the words of a young woman whose work (pictured on the right) was featured at the Mountain Arts Center near Prestonsburg. Above a lovely sculpture of hands holding a lump of coal, she wrote: “Our Black Diamond of the Mountains. It is our precious jewel, our livelihood, our future...Many live for it. Many have died for it.”

Loretta Lynn, age 81 just appeared in Vancouver last month

As can be imagined, we take every opportunity to take designated Scenic Byways. We were not happy however, to discover the Red River Gorge National Scenic Byway has a historic tunnel that has only 12 feet of clearance. Since Lily stands at 11’ 6” we decided to forgo exploring that particular road. We did stumble upon US 23, The Country Music Highway that links six counties in Eastern Kentucky that have contributed more than their fair share to our heritage of country musicians. These artists all come from that area: Loretta Lynn and her sister Crystal Gayle, Wynona and Naomi Judd, Billy Ray Cyrus, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Gary Stewart, Patty Loveless and more. Every Thursday evening at the US 23 Country Music Highway Museum folks gather to play bluegrass, country and songs of old Appalachia. We were sorry we were traveling through on a Tuesday.

We also tried to visit Loretta Lynn’s “homeplace” in ButcherHoller but found the narrow Kentucky roads were not conducive to RVs, and had to turn around when we realized she wasn’t going to make it through. But Highway 23 took us to Paintsville where we found “Miss Christy” a local librarian who enthusiastically keeps alive the ancient history of the area with a presentation about the 2000-year-old Adena culture, people who were discovered through burial mounds in the area which are now completely destroyed. And it took us to Pikeville where Everett, the curator of the Big Sandy Heritage Center, knows everything about the area from early religion to the Civil War to “the PikevilleCut-through Project” (which totally changed the geography surrounding the town,) to the feuds of those famous locals, the Hatfields and the McCoys.

As for us, we are enthusiastic learners and listeners. We are also, we think, the only tourists in the area. Tonight is our third night in a row, third campground, where we are the only campers.