A Guide to theBlue Heron Community

National Park ServiceU.S. Department of the Interior

Big South Fork National River and Recreation AreaOneida, Tennessee

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The old mining town of Blue Heron poses an interesting question: How do you interpret a ghost town? Agood question, because at Blue Heron there is no complete written record.

Blue Heron, or Mine 18, is an abandoned coal mining town. It was a part of the Stearns Coal and LumberCompany’s past operation in what today is the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, a unit ofthe National Park Service. Most of what we know about life at Blue Heron, and the other Stearns coaltowns, has been handed down through oral history. Blue Heron mine operated from 1937 until December1962, when it closed. During that time, hundreds of people lived and worked in the isolated community onthe banks of the Big South Fork River. Their story is the focus of this interpretive tour of the Blue HeronCommunity.

When the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company abandoned Blue Heron in 1962, the buildings were eitherremoved or lapsed into decay. There were no original buildings standing when the town was “re-created” asan interpretive center in the 1980s. Consequently, the town was restored in an “open-air” museum format,and new structures were constructed on the approximate site of several of the original buildings. These newstructures are open, metal shells of buildings, and are referred to as “ghost structures.” Each ghoststructure has an audio-tape station with recorded recollections of some of the people of Mine 18.

The key to your experiencing Blue Heron is to see the town as it’s residents saw it. As you walk around thisre-created town, listen to the words of the people of Blue Heron. They tell the story of their lives in thisisolated mining community better than anyone.

How do you Interpret a Ghost Town?

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Map of Blue Heron

1. Train Depot2. Bath House3. Residences4. Mine Entrance5. The Shop6. Tipple and Bridge

7. School House8. Church9. Company Store10. Residences11. Superintendent’s House

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Your Tour of Blue Heron 1. Train Depot

This booklet is designed to be a general guide tosome of the buildings at Blue Heron. While thisguide offers a suggested route, visitors are free toroam the town and visit the ghost structures in anyorder. The Blue Heron community is a self-guided,open-air museum.

The Blue Heron interpretive trail does involvesome uphill walking. Take your time on the pavedwalkways, and watch your footing on the steps ofthe buildings.

Today the train depot serves as a landing platformfor arriving visitors aboard the Big South ForkScenic Railway, a modern excursion rail whichtravels the original K&T Railroad line. Restrooms, agift shop, and a park ranger office are located at thenew depot. The area of the current depot was amarshalling yard for coal cars (called “gons”, shortfor gondola).

A recommended place to begin your tour of theBlue Heron Mining Community is the new traindepot. Here you’ll find a model of the town at itsheyday in the 1950s, along with a model of the coaltipple and bridge. Interpretive panels tell the storyof the Stearns Company’s timber and miningoperations, and the development of the companyrailroad, the Kentucky and Tennessee Railroad, theK&T.

Before you leave the depot, listen to the audioexhibit and meet the people who will share their lifeat Blue Heron with you today.

Rail yard at Blue Heron Mine where the depot nowstands

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2. The Bath House

In work as dirty as coal mining, a bath house wasa special attraction for the miners. Here the mencould unwind and clean up after a hard shift in themines. The water for the bath house was stored ina tank above the building and heated. Thisgravity-fed hot water supply provided a welcomerespite from the rigors of a long day in the minesand meant that coal dust would not be carriedhome.

The bath house was one of the few luxuriesafforded the miners and many of them enjoyed thisrespite from the dark time in the mines. They helda “wildcat strike” for several days in order to getthe company to agree to build the structure. Theylater found out that their pay was deducted for thetime “out on strike.”

In the bath house the miners could leave theirpersonal belongings in wire baskets suspended bypulley ropes in the ceiling. They could lock theirbaskets and retrieve them at the end of the shift.

Bath house entrance in the late 1960’s

Typical miner’s bath house

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3. Residences

The Wright children swimming in the Big SouthFork River

The next three ghost structures were used asresidences by several families. Today thesestructures are used as interpretive stations withspecific themes of life at Blue Heron. The firststructure you will see on the left has the theme of“Moving”. Many of the miners moved aroundwithin the town, or moved to different coal campsover the course of a career. Consequently theylived in many different housing arrangements. Asyou listen to the miners and read the panels, youcan get an idea of the transitory lifestyle of manyof the miners and their families. This residencealso served as the first mine superintendent’shouse.

The second ghost structure’s theme is “Courtship,Marriage, and Family”. In an isolated coal townlike Blue Heron, young men and women met eachother, fell in love, married, and had children withinthat community. Domestic married life in atransitory environment like a coal town producedits own set of challenges. Listen to the words ofthe miners and their families as they describe howthey experience romance, marriage, and childrenat Blue Heron.

The third structure’s theme is “Entertainment”. Inan isolated and transitory community like BlueHeron, with limited radio and almost no televisionreception people had to be resourceful. Forentertainment, the residents participated inactivities such as baseball, fishing, hunting,

swimming and swinging from ropes into the Big SouthFork River. The church and gospel music provided aspecial activity for some residents. Many residents ofBlue Heron and the surrounding coal towns lookedforward every summer for the Fourth of Julycelebration in Stearns, or the K&T Railroad picnic atBell Farm. Listen to the words of the residents of BlueHeron and try to imagine what you would have donefor entertainment in a coal town such as Blue Heron.

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4. Mine Entrance

This is one of the original slope mine entrances atMine 18, or Blue Heron. There were many moremine entrances in the area. The entrance, with itsreconstructed façade and interpretive exhibits,shows miners at work in the passagewaysdepicting three separate phases of coal mining.Listen to the miners as they describe their life inthe mine tunnels, where it was “dark as adungeon, damp as the dew”, as singer MerleTravis described coal mining.

The coal cars and locomotive near the entrance tothe mine are original to the site and once hauledcoal and miners here at Blue Heron. The minerscalled the locomotive the “motor”, and the cars“trams”. This electric tram system extended formiles along the east and west sides of the BigSouth Fork River, allowing tram delivery of coalfrom the various mine locations at Blue Heron.This rail system hauled the raw coal from themines to the coal tipple, where it was separatedand processed for market. At the entrance to themine is an automated coal loader (called a “JoyLoader”) which loaded raw coal into the tram cars.There are interpretive exhibits near the entrance tothe mine which describe the mining technologyused.

Rail tracks leading into Mine 18

Cutting machine operating in mine

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5. The Shop

The repair shop was located on the spur off themain tram rail leading from the mines to the coaltipple. Rails allowed tram cars and engines tobe driven into this shop for repair work. In a fullymechanized operation such as that at BlueHeron, many items of machinery were repairedhere daily.

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6. Tipple and Bridge

This dynamic structure and bridge were the heartof the Blue Heron operation. This $250,000structure was considered state-of-the-art whencompleted in the late 1930s. Here, raw coal fromMine 18, and other Stearns Company mines, wasdropped into the 120 ton hopper and sorted andseparated into marketable sizes (e.g., nut, block,egg). The separated coal was then loaded bychutes into waiting coal cars, or gons, underneaththe tipple. From here, the processed coal wastransported by standard gauge railroad along theK&T line to Stearns, where it was transferred tothe main Southern Railroad line for delivery tovarious coal markets such as Cincinnati, Ohio, andChattanooga, Tennessee.

It is hard to imagine the intense noise and bustle ofthe coal tipple in those bygone years at Blue Heron.Today the operation is silent, but in the 1940s and1950s there was an almost constant bedlam ofactivity as tram cars rolled up with their tons of rawcoal. The mechanical clanging of the tipple, the noiseof railroad cars, and the ever-present coal dust,produced a dynamic industrial environment.

You are welcome to walk across the tipple bridge.Located within the sheltered portion of the tipple aretwo maps showing the extent of the mining whichoccurred in this area. Proceed out over the BigSouth Fork of the Cumberland River and observe thearea from a bird’s eye view.

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7. School House

Welcome to the Blue Heron schoolhouse. This was aone-room school which taught grades 1-8. While theStearns Company built the school to provideeducation to students at Blue Heron, youngsters fromoutside the coal town also were allowed to attend.Later, the school became a part of the McCrearyCounty school system, with the Stearns Companyproviding part of the funding. The teachers whotaught here had to be flexible and resourceful, withwide differences in ages and grades of the attendingstudents.

As you listen to some of the former students and readthe interpretive panel try and imagine yourself, oryour children, attending a remote one room schoolsuch as this in the 1940s and 1950s.

Etta and Nancy Slaven in front of school house

Clifford Wilson by school house

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8. Church

An integral part of the Blue Heron community wasthe church. In a remote town such as this, manypeople benefited from the spiritual and socialactivities of the church. The people of Blue Heronpersonally funded the construction of the churchfrom their own pockets, along with donations fromorganizations. The church was the scene ofmany important events in people’s lives such asbaptisms, weddings, and funerals. Here, the local“Blue Heron Quartet” performed gospel musicpresentations.

On Wednesday nights and Sundays the ringing ofthe bell of the Blue Heron church (a bell from aSouthern Railroad engine) signaled a quiet respitefrom the din and roar of the industrial activity of thecoal town. The church was a place of repose for ahard working people.

Standing on the front steps of the Blue Heron Church

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9. Company Store

Front of the Company Store at Mine 18

Most coal companies developed a retail storeoperation where employees and their familiescould acquire dry goods. This store also servedas the community post office.

Here, the miners could “draw scrip”, a form ofcredit drawn against their pay for their labor anduse the paper and metal “money” to purchasegoods. Some limited food services were availableat the store also.

The store at Blue Heron was part of a system ofcompany stores operated by the StearnsCompany. Larger stores were located at thecompany headquarters in Stearns.

The store was an integral part of life at BlueHeron. In an isolated community such as this, thestore provided goods and services to theinhabitants and provided a communication linkwith the outside world through the post office.

First store manager Bill Pryor andhis wife

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10. Residences

The next three ghost structures served as residencesfor some of the personnel at the Blue Heron mine.The first structure served as the timekeeper’s house.As you listen to the “Impressions and Attitudes”, notehow some of the commentators liked the mining town,while others did not.

The next residence has the interpretive theme of“Women’s Life”. The audio-tape here hasrecollections of the life of some of the women at BlueHeron.

The last residence on the street has the theme of“Nature’s Bounty”. As you will hear, many of thetown’s residents cared about both the naturalsurroundings of the area and the recreationalactivities such as hunting and fishing that wereavailable.

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11. Superintendent’s House

This structure served as the residence of the lasttwo mine superintendents. Lemmie Wright andCack Slaven both resided here during theirtenures as superintendent. The superintendentwas responsible for the management andadministration of the coal company operation. The

superintendent also allocated the scarce housingresources at Blue Heron. Listen to both the minersand Lemmie Wright talk about the demandingduties of life at Blue Heron as the minesuperintendent.