Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading & Logging In Cumberland, Fentress, Overton & Putnam Counties |...

book: Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading & Logging In Cumberland, Fentress, Overton & Putnam Counties | Jason Duke

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Tennessee Coal Min...

	Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading & Logging In Cumberland, Fentress, Overton & Putnam Counties Jason Duke Turner Publishing Company (KY), 2003 average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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A Wonderful Look Back

The book is a fascinating look back at life in the early 1900's
in 4 counties of the northern Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee.
There is a wealth of old photographs--at a guess, about 250 or more
in the book's 120 oversize glossy pages--maps, and descriptions in
the book. The emphasis is primarily on the coal camps such as Wilder
in Fentress County, with a lot of detail about the railroads that
served the coal mining communities, and not as much about the logging.

The book is divided into histories of some of the towns in each county
(the book calls them "cities", which is a very generous term). Then
you'll find histories of the timber and lumber companies, and the coal
companies. There's a nice chapter on the people--biographies of some
of the residents (mostly coal miners in this book). There are brief
chapters on the Wilder and Zenith strikes (1919 to 1937 or so) and
some excerpts from the 1930s from Jamestown and Livingston papers. All
chock-full of photographs of the people and places--including a couple
of photos of hangings from the late 1800's: it would appear that the
local law enforcement preferred using trees to building gallows.

The book is a nice companion piece to Ghost Railroads of Tennessee,
although the emphasis is on a much smaller part of the state. On a
personal note, I'm a caver, and most of the areas in the book are familiar
to me. Of particular interest is the town of Wilder, close to the gorge
of the East Fork of the Obey River. The population peaked at about 2500
in 1925 or so, with large hotels and a thriving coal business. What is
left has a population of about 60--the hotels, the mines, the railroad,
etc, are all long since gone and grown over--looking at the old photos
is a real treat! A highly recommended book.

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