Company store/offices and coal camp houses at Himlerville, KY, founded by Hungarian Martin Himler as an all-Hungarian
coal mining operation in the 1910s.
Himlerville was renamed Beauty, KY in 1930, as is noted on the church. Martin Himler's mansion sits on the hill behind the
store and church. This once beautiful residence is now abandoned.
A closer look at the abandoned Himler Mansion.
HAZARD COAL FIELD
Perry and Knott Counties
A few remaining coal company homes constructed by the Hardy Burlington Coal Company
in Hardburly, KY. (Photo courtesy of Mick Vest)
A CSX train passes the tipple that stood at Bulan, KY. Historian George Torok in 2004 wrote, "The only surviving wooden tipple of significant size in the region is
the Ajax tipple in Perry County." About the Ajax tipple Christopher Coleman writes, "This is the largest surviving wooden tipple in Eastern Kentucky and is located on your left so watch closely for it.
You'll have to park and walk back behind the treeline for a good view but you will not be disappointed ... It basically looks like a giant wood box with windows sitting on many round, wooden post with a
long conveyor running up from a truck-dump. Sounds fairly plain but this tipple has a personality that will take you back to an infant coal industry." Too bad it burned down in early 2007, allegedly leaving Eastern
Kentucky with no vintage wooden coal tipples. What a sad state of affairs for industrial preservation. (Photo by Robby Vaughn at www.railpictures.net.)
These coal camp houses built by the Ajax Coal Co. do remain at Bulan, KY. (Photo courtesy of Mick Vest)
CINCINATTI-SOUTHERN COAL FIELD
McCreary, Pulaski, and Wayne Counties
Mining historian Mick Vest sends this photo he took in Stearns, KY in 2000 and titles it "Stearns, KY downtown." He notes that the town was founded in 1902 by
Justus S. Stearns. While the author has not yet visited Stearns, it seems like a "tourist coal camp" (replete with a reconstructed tipple), which isn't a bad idea.
Another photo by Mick Vest is the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company office, which is now the McCreary County Museum. Mick writes, "The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company was sold to The
Blue Diamond Coal Company in 1976. The last coal was shipped in 1987."
KY BITUMINOUS COALFIELDS NOT COVERED BY THIS WEBSITE
CUMBERLAND GAP COALFIELD (Bell and Knox Counties)
JELLICO COALFIELD (Whitley County and Campbell County, TN)
NOT IN APPALACHIA: WESTERN KENTUCKY COALFIELD
