Posts Tagged With: Benham KY

Pineville, KY. April 16

Tuesday morning view from the dining room at Pine Mountain State Resort Park

Although it was not planned, we had an interesting driving adventure today. Our plan was to visit coal country, east of Pineville KY. And that is how the day began. We headed out on US 119 towards the three cities of Cumberland, Benham,and Lynch. The road was in good shape, with truck lanes on mountain slopes. The rock cliffs along the road were a clear indication of the rock geology of the area. We passed under two coal belt lines that transfer coal from the mountains on the south side of the road to rail lines on the north side. Trucks carrying coal and equipment working in the yard were visible. The two coal belt lines go to mines owned by one family and is the longest running operation in Harlan County.

Coal Mining operations along US Hwy 119 in Harlan County Kentucky

The Portal 31 exhibition mine in Lynch drew us first. We had hoped for some exhibits in addition to the underground mine tour, but only the tour is offered. We have been underground for several mine tours so we passed on that. Just a mile or two up the road was Benham, home to the Kentucky Coal Museum.

The Kentucky Coal Museum is a four-story building that was previously used as the commissary for the International Harvester Company which ran coal mines in this area. Benham, like Lynch, was a company town. Benham started as a farming community but International Harvester purchased the area in the early 1900s and began mining coal. Several rich coal seams are in the mountains on either side of the town, located in the valley between the two mountains.

Benham was built and operated completely by International Harvester’s subsidiary, Wisconsin Steel. IH needed lots of steel for its manufacturing of agricultural equipment and this area provided it. The mines operated until 1980 but even by the 1960s, land and buildings were being sold to locals and eventually their own town incorporated. Benham operated like any company town, outwardly sweet as the company provided for all but with racial tension and lack of individual control. Today it survives but is part of Harlan County, one of the poorer counties in Kentucky.

The museum seems to be locally funded with numerous pictures and artifacts relating to life in a company coal town. Mining equipment, model home layouts, school pictures, trophies won by locals, etc. Miners who died in coal accidents receive prominent display space. A small section of the museum has a few items from Loretta Lynn, born about 90 miles north of Benham. We spent about 45 minutes here.

Now began our driving adventure. We had identified Kingdom Come State Park as a nearby park with vistas of the mountains and valleys of the region. As we drove to Benham, signs from US 119 had given advance notice that the park was coming near. But we had also seen from the park’s website a google map, which gave no address and no specific driving directions. Google Maps would not recognize the park from the park website that said: “Get Directions”. We looked at Google Maps and identified for ourselves two roads that seemed to lead to the visitors center.

Road option one came out of the town of Cumberland, where we were parked. We drove the few blocks to the road leading to the park, went up the hill, and found the road both blocked off and the road pavement ripped out on the other side of the barricade. Nothing on Google about this; nothing on the park web site.

Road option number two. KY 160 went up the west side of the park and led to another road that led to the visitor center. So we went up KY 160 and turned on the road, Kentucky Highway 1679. Now, we have driven on lots of gravel roads, lots of twisty roads, lots of roads with steep drop-offs, lots of narrow roads, etc. But even I stopped a few hundred feet into the road and backed down to Hwy 160. 1679 was rough, narrow, with steep drop-offs, and no visible means of allowing an oncoming car to pass by. It was miles to the park. It was a good decision, although while backing down I was doubting it. We later discovered 1679, although a state highway, is considered a primitive road, best used by 4 wheeling ATVs or high clearance 4 x 4 vehicles. We approached this 39 mile road from four entrances (more on that later) and only one of the four mentioned the primitive road feature.

Now what? Google was no use. We called the park and the manager said to take US 119 to Whitesburg where signs would direct us. We didn’t. We were well past US 119 and we decided to continue following Hwy 160. At Hwy 931 we would go south and finish the rectangle surrounding the park. This would give us a chance to see more of Kentucky. No hurry, plenty of time, it was only 12:30 or so.

The rectangle was close to being completed as we neared Whitesburg. The drive had taken close to an hour and I was in need of some food. We stopped at a McDonald’s and as we drove in, we saw a sign, Kingdom Come State Park 14 miles. As we left McD’s, we followed the sign. Well, it lead us to the other end of Hwy 1679, 39 miles from where I had backed the car down. One look was enough to tell us this end of the road was not much better and we decided to write off Kingdom Come. (By the way, the park is named after a 1903 best-selling novel written by a Kentucky author, “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come”.) Hwy 1679 is also called Little Shepherd Trail.

Kentucky Highway 1679

As we resumed our drive west on US 119 to Pineville, we came across more, and larger, signs directing us to Kingdom Come State Park. We are suckers, we gave it one more try to find the park, and this time it was successful. The park manager chatted with us about the directions and the park. She enlightened us about Hwy 1679, the Little Shepherd Trail. Within the park boundaries, maybe the middle one-third of the 39 mile road, the Hwy is paved, and while not wide, two cars can ease by each other. Once you leave the park boundaries, the road reverts to its primitive status, so much so that adventure drivers come from a distance just to challenge the road. We went on several short hikes to various overlooks but the vistas, while pleasant, were similar to what we have seen already. We left Kingdom Come, never to return.

“Log” arch in Kingdom Come State Park in KY

View of KY Hwy 160 from overlook in Kingdom Come State Park, Kentucky

Kentucky Highways 160 and 931 were generally suitable roads; except for two things. First, I have never previously seen a road sign (that I recall) that read: “Break in Pavement”. On 160 I saw four. The first one probably indicated a location where some rock had fallen close to the shoulder of the road. (The signs are well ahead of the actual situation.) The second one was seen about a 1/4 mile and around a curve in front of a four-foot washout that extended into half of the oncoming driving lane. It did have an orange traffic cone stuck in the middle of the hole. The other two marked similar dangerous pavement subsidence that would have halted your car in its tracks. Now, I ask you: Why go to the bother of putting up a sign and not just fixing the dangerous road condition????

“Break in Pavement” ahead on Hwy 160 in KY

The second complaint really refers to multiple locations around south central Kentucky. First noticed on our way to Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, I was not going to comment on it. But now I have seen it in numerous locations. “It” is the quantity of trash lining the shoulders of roads, not usually interstates or major commercial roads but the back roads. It is not just items that show up after snow melts but constant piles scattered along the ditches of roads everywhere. Not that it follows, but we also constantly passed small, rural churches. Would it not be nice if they honored God by beautifying his work and organize trash pick-up around their churches as a start?

I have pontificated enough. I won’t bore you with other complaints, at least not in this blog.

PS. We did make it to Pineville to determine if one can see Chained Rock from the town. With the aid of binoculars and the zoom feature on our camera, one can just make out the chain “holding” the rock so it does not fall on the city.

Ed and Chris. April 18