Butcher Hollow, Kentucky | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 37°46′44″N82°42′58″W / 37.77889°N 82.71611°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Kentucky |
County | Johnson |
Elevation | 709 ft (216 m) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP Code | 41265 |
Area code | 606 |
GNIS feature ID | 488497 [1] |
Butcher Hollow (also known and most commonly pronounced as Butcher Holler) is a coal-mining community located in Johnson County, Kentucky, United States. [2]
The town is the birthplace of country singer Loretta Lynn, who paid tribute to the community in the song "Coal Miner's Daughter", which begins with the lyrics
Well, I was born'd a coal miner's daughter. In a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler.
Later in the song, she also mentions Van Lear, the larger community in which Butcher Hollow is located:
My daddy worked all night in the Van Lear coal mines. All day long in the fields a-hoein corn [3]
Butcher Hollow took the name of a nearby valley which was named for the local Butcher family. [4] Butcher Hollow is a part of the community of Van Lear, which was constructed by the Consolidation Coal Company in the early part of the 20th century. Van Lear was named for Van Lear Black, one of the company's directors. Although most of Butcher Hollow lies outside of the old Van Lear city limits, the mailing address of those who have lived there has been Van Lear since the establishment of the Van Lear post office in 1909. Butcher Hollow is not an independent town or village in its own right. Currently, Van Lear is an unincorporated community. There are no deep mines operating in Van Lear proper, although some mines operate nearby. Most of the residents work in locations outside Van Lear, including the nearby cities of Paintsville, Prestonsburg, and Pikeville. Since the end of local mining, only a handful of businesses continue to operate in the Van Lear area, including a bookstore, Mine Number 5 Store, The East Kentucky Museum of Mysteries, and Icky's 1950s Snack Shop (located inside the Coal Miners' Museum).
Although Butcher Hollow is often listed as a separate town, it is geographically considered a street or a neighborhood by natives of Eastern Kentucky. Thus, Butcher Hollow's address would be Butcher Hollow, Van Lear, Johnson County, Kentucky.
Johnson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,680. Its county seat is Paintsville. The county was formed in 1843 and named for Richard Mentor Johnson, a colonel of the War of 1812, United States Representative, Senator, and Vice President of the United States.
Roslyn is a city in Kittitas County, Washington, United States. The population was 950 at the 2020 census. Roslyn is located in the Cascade Mountains, about 80 miles east of Seattle. The town was founded in 1886 as a coal mining company town. During the 20th century, the town gradually transitioned away from coal, and today its economy is primarily based on forestry and tourism. The town was the filming location for The Runner Stumbles, Northern Exposure, and The Man in the High Castle. Many of the town's historical structures have been preserved, and its downtown was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Moura is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Banana in Central Queensland, Australia. It services the surrounding coal mining and rural activities. It is situated approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi) west of Biloela on the Dawson Highway, 186 kilometres (116 mi) west of the port city of Gladstone, and 171 kilometres (106 mi) south west of Rockhampton.
Briceville is an unincorporated community in Anderson County, Tennessee. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is named for railroad tycoon and one-term Democratic U.S. Senator Calvin S. Brice of Ohio, who was instrumental in bringing railroad service to the town.
A coal town, also known as a coal camp or patch, is a type of company town or mining community established by the employer, a mining company, which imports workers to the site to work the mineral find. The company develops it and provides residences for a population of miners and related workers to reside near the coal mine. The 'town founding' process is not limited to mining, but this type of development typically takes place where mineral wealth is located in a remote or undeveloped area. The company opens the site for exploitation by first, constructing transportation infrastructure to serve it, and later to establish residences for workers. Mineral resources were sometimes found as the result of logging operations that established clear-cut area. Geologists and cartographers could then chart and plot the lands for exploitation.
Luxor is an unincorporated community and coal town in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Van Lear is an unincorporated community and coal town in Johnson County, Kentucky, United States.
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Whitsett is an unincorporated community in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 30 miles (50 km) south of Pittsburgh. The population is estimated at 200. It was founded in 1845 by Ralph C. Whitsett Sr. He and his family built a large red brick house in 1873, which still stands today. The community is made up of mostly “company” houses that were built for workers who worked in a large coal mine located nearby; the mine was Banning #21. Most of the houses were semi-detached "twins" built to accommodate two families. The mine has been closed since 1954 and most of the houses have been renovated and turned into single-family dwellings.
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Robertsdale is an unincorporated community in Wood Township in southern Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated on Broad Top Mountain near the eastern slope.
The Consolidation Coal Company (BBC) was founded in 1875 in Iowa and purchased by the Chicago and North Western Railroad in 1880 in order to secure a local source of coal. The company operated in south central Iowa in Mahaska and Monroe counties until after World War I. Exhaustion of some resources, competition from overseas markets, and other changes led to the company's closing down its mines and leaving its major planned towns by the late 1920s. The CCC worked at Muchakinock in Mahaska County until the coal resources of that area were largely exhausted. In 1900, the company purchased 10,000 acres (40 km2) in southern Mahaska County and northern Monroe County, Iowa.
The Coal Miners' Museum is a museum in Van Lear, Kentucky, dedicated to the area's coal mining history. The museum is administered by the Van Lear Historical Society.
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Winter Quarters is a ghost town in Carbon County, Utah, United States. Coal was discovered in the area in 1875, and later that year, the Pleasant Valley Coal Company began coal mining operations. A group of coal miners was delayed during an early winter storm in 1877, which led to the town's name of Winter Quarters. On May 1, 1900, an explosion in the Winter Quarters Number Four mine killed 200 miners. Despite the mine explosion, the coal mining operations remained active until 1922, when the opening of a new mine in Castle Gate caused many people to relocate there. By 1930, Winter Quarters was abandoned.
Ethel is an unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia, United States. Ethel is located on West Virginia Route 17, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) east-northeast of Logan. Ethel has a post office with ZIP code 25076.
Packard is a ghost town in Whitley County, Kentucky, United States. Packard was located 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Williamsburg. It was founded as a mining camp by the Thomas B. Mahan family around 1900. Packard's population is thought to have reached at one point nearly 400 residents. The community was a coal town which served the Packard Coal Company; the community and the company were named after Whitley County school teacher Amelia Packard. Packard once had a railway station on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad as well as a post office, which opened on November 27, 1908.
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Scotts Run is a geographical division of the Cass District in Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States. Currently, it encompasses thirteen small, unincorporated communities. Located a few miles from Morgantown, this area's predominant industry in the early twentieth century was coal mining and production. Scotts Run became well known nationally during the years of the Great Depression, when photographers and the relief efforts of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt publicized the impoverished conditions faced by the community. Since the decline in the coal industry in the area, Scotts Run's population has rapidly decreased. However, the current community is active in revitalization efforts to promote new businesses and heritage tourism.