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Buckeye Creek located in Perry County, Kentucky, appears like any other creek in coal dominated Eastern Kentucky. Stemming from a hollow know as Kenmont, Buckeye Creek has been at the center of various extensive coal mining operations beginning as early as 1916. Starting in May of that year, the Kenmont Coal Company began developing 1,500 acres of leased land for the exploitation of the coal reserves found in the Hazard No. 7 seam. These lands were leased from none other than the Virginia Iron Coal & Coke Company. By February of 1917, the mine was fully operational and coal was being shipped from the Kenmont Coal tipple via the Louisville & Nashville Railway's Jeff Mine Spur. It is recorded in 1919 that the mine had produced on average approximately 2,000 to 2,500 net tons of Hazard coal per week since opening. Of interest, the name Kenmont comes from the combination of the words Kentucky and Mountain. In The Black Diamond, Volume 62, No. 10, published on March 8th, 1919, the Kenmont tipple is noted as having a daily processing limit of 1,500 net tons with 4 loading tracks.
The original Kenmont Coal Company is recorded as having closed around 1953, rather late for many of the classic coal enterprises in Perry County. Amazingly, the original Kenmont Coal Company wooden tipple lasted into the late 1980s. Beginning in the early 1960's, William B. Sturgill, noted coal baron, operated Kenmont Coals, Inc. which operated a small truck dump loadout just to the east of the original wooden tipple. This small loadout can be seen next to the old tipple in the below aerial photograph. Kenmont Coals, Inc. would eventually become a subsidiary of Sturgill's Falcon Coal Company. Before the construction of the truck loadout, Kenmont Coals, Inc. may have used the original tipple. Falcon Coal was eventually purchased by Diamond Shamrock Coal Co. and later purchased once again by Arch Mineral Corp. in 1987. By 1995, the original tipple as well as the truck loadout had been demolished to make way for a new, massive preparation plant to be called Buckeye No. 1. With the construction of this new plant, all of historic Kenmont was razed. James River Coal owned Buckeye No. 1 beginning in June of 1995 and operated the complex under the Leeco flag. In 2014, Blackhawk Mining LLC purchased James River Coal. In 2016, the operator of Buckeye No. 1, Blue Diamond Mining LLC, a subsidiary of Blackhawk Mining LLC, decided to idle the plant. Since that year, no mining activity has resumed on Buckeye Creek. The future of Buckeye No. 1 as well as mining on Buckeye Creek is still in the air as of 2024. Only God knows if coal will ever be extracted from the mountains in Kenmont Hollow ever again.
Two Louisville & Nashville Railway Alco C420's haul a cut of empty ABCX hoppers up Buckeye Creek in Kenmont Hollow, Kentucky, towards the Falcon Coal Company's Kenmont Coals, Inc. truck dump loadout on May 6th, 1980. The train originated out of Hazard, Kentucky, with cars, once loaded, destined for one of the Tennessee Valley Authority's fossil plants. During the early 1980s, Perry County, along with most of coal country, was seeing a coal boom thanks to the widespread use of coal fired power plants throughout the United States. One of the larger producers in Kentucky, Falcon Coal gobbled up contracts to supply coal for both TVA and Detroit Edison. Falcon Coal had been purchased by the Diamond Shamrock Coal Company in 1978 and was operating as a subsidiary when this photo was taken.
*George Melvin Photograph**Nick A. Jobe Collection*
After spotting the hoppers under the Kenmont Coals, Inc. loadout, Alco C420's #1315 and #1355 run around their train passing the original Kenmont Coal Company tipple. The coal is not going to be loaded from the wooden tipple closest to the camera but at the Kenmont Coals, Inc. tipple behind it. This operation ended only a few years after this photograph.
*George Melvin Photograph**Nick A. Jobe Collection*
An early 1980s shot of the original Kenmont Coal Company tipple. In rough shape at the time of this photo, the building would only have a few years left before finally being demolished.
The Kenmont Coals, Inc. truck dump is located closest to the photographer. The dilapidated wooden tipple further back is the original Kenmont Coal Company tipple that lasted in the 1980s.
A newspaper clipping of the original Kenmont Coal Company tipple soon after completion in the 1920s.
A side view from the same newspaper of the Kenmont Coal Company tipple. Note the long conveyer system which funneled the coal from the mine to the tipple.
https://metcoalblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/blog-post-title-3/
https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/MKlEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Kenmont
http://www.coaleducation.org/coalhistory/coaltowns/coalcamps/perry_county.htm
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/157733/files/tb1627.pdf
https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/trnm0805lncoal1966.pdf
Mr. Robby Vaughn: AKA Mr. Coal
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