More than just a coal camp, Jenkins is an actual town with a municipal government that was built by Consolidation Coal Company starting in 1912. It was to be the company-built hub for surrounding satellite mines of Consol - much in the same manner as Berwind-White Coal Company's Windber, PA, or U.S. Coal & Coke's Gary, WV. Eventually the company-built towns of Jenkins, Burdine, and Dunham stretched for six miles along Elkhorn Creek. On the other side of the mountain from Dunham was another big Consolidation Coal town named McRoberts. A big central tipple was located at Dunham to process all of the coal from Consol's mines in the area and load it onto trains, although there were smaller tipples in the auxiliary coal towns. A central power plant was built at Jenkins to provide electricity for all of these coal towns and mines, but it was demolished in 1988. Also, Consol built a large lake at Jenkins to provide water to its towns and for the steam turbines in the central power plant. The people in Burdine, Jenkins, and Dunham worked in Mines No. 201 through 208. Consol's employees on the other side of the mountain in McRoberts mined coal in Mines No. 209-215. Consol called their Letcher County properties the Elkhorn Division. (They called their properties in Johnson County, KY the Millers Creek Division.) In 1956 Consolidation Coal Company sold its properties around Jenkins to Bethlehem Steel, which operated them as the Beth-Elkhorn Coal Corporation until the 1980s.
1920s image from "Coal Industry In Kentucky"90-inch-thick Elkhorn seam on Consolidation Coal's property at Elkhorn.Nov. 2016 image by authorCoal company houses at Jenkins.Nov. 2016 image by authorThe Methodist church in Jenkins is a large structure of masonry construction.Nov. 2016 image by authorJenkins Christian Church.Nov. 2016 image by authorSaint George Catholic Church and rectory in Jenkins.Nov. 2016 image by authorThree shop buildings in the middle of Jenkins that Consolidation Coal Co. built - the nearest was the oil house, the large one behind the oil house was the supply house, and the one in the back was the machine shop.Nov. 2016 image by authorSign on the supply house reads, "Division Shops - Elkhorn Division * Beth-Elkhorn Corp."Nov. 2016 image by authorAnother sign on the Jenkins shops that probably dates back to the Beth-Elkhorn days.Nov. 2016 image by authorThis building was once the machine shop for the Jenkins coal mines. Mines 204, 205, and 206 were at Jenkins. Mine 203 was between Jenkins and Burdine.Nov. 2016 image by authorDetail of a door on the machine shop.Nov. 2016 image by authorA row of coal company houses at Jenkins.Nov. 2016 image by authorFormer union hall for UMWA Local 5741.Nov. 2016 image by authorThe Jenkins train depot has been restored and is now the David A. Zegeer Coal-Railroad Museum.Nov. 2016 image by authorBurdine was another Consolidation Coal Co. town next to Jenkins. The residents of Burdine worked in Mines No. 201 and 202.Nov. 2016 image by authorLater, a new portal for Mine 204 was constructed in Marshalls Branch hollow on the Letcher-Pike County line. These shop buildings were once part of that Mine 204 complex and may have been a lamp house, bathhouse, or motor barn.1935 imageVintage photo of the Marshalls Branch portal.Nov. 2016 image by authorBack side of the Marshalls Branch Mine 204 buildings.Nov. 2016 image by authorRemaining coal company houses at Dunham. Dunham housed the employees of Mines 206, 207, and 208. It is located on the other side of Jenkins from Burdine.Nov. 2016 image by authorDunham coal camp houses packed tightly into the hollow.Nov. 2016 image by authorTwo shop buildings remain at the site of the Dunham central prep plant.Nov. 2016 image by authorA better view of the brick shop building at Dunham.Nov. 2016 image by authorConsolidation Coal Co. did build parks at some of their company towns, but this park is probably a recent development.Nov. 2016 image by authorAnother view of the homes built by Consolidation Coal Co. over a century ago at Dunham.Nov. 2016 image by author
Recommended literature:
Extracting Appalachia, Images of the Consolidated Coal Company 1910-1945 by Geoffrey L. Buckley (2004, Ohio University Press)
A Guide To Historic Coal Towns of the Big Sandy River Valley by George D. Torok (2004, University of Tennessee Press)
