TOWNS AND MINES:
ELKHORN COALFIELD
The Elkhorn Coalfied is in western Pike County, eastern Letcher County, and southern Floyd County. Along with
the Harlan Coalfield and Hazard Coalfield, it has been one of the
most productive coalfields in Kentucky. Mining centered around the renown Elkhorn No. 3 seam of coal, but the Elkhorn No. 1 and No. 2, as well as the Millers creek seams were also mined.
Rail service was provided by the Louisville and Nashville (L&N) Railroad and Cheseapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway. The L&N completed their "North Fork Extension" on November 23, 1912. The C&O
completed their main line into the area through Pikeville by July 1905. C&O Marrowbone Branch through Hellier was opened in May 1906, and their Elkhorn and Beaver Valley Branch to Wayland
was completed in June 1914. The Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad (later Clinchfield Railroad) connected with the C&O at Elkhorn City in 1915. The These railroads were extended over the years as new coal mines opened.
The Elkhorn Coalfield went into decline through the 1950s and early '60s. Author Henry Caudill published "Night Comes To The Cumberlands" about this regional depression in 1963, and in 1964 CBS sent reporter
Charles Kuralt into the area to document the sadness in the TV show "Christmas in Appalachia." However, coal production surged again from this coalfield in the 1970s and 80s, and, during some years of
the 1980s, Kentucky was the number one coal mining state in America.
TOWNS AND MINES: