EASTERN TENNESSEE COALFIELDS

I have delineated nine bituminous coalfields in Tennessee:

Image by others via Google Books This was Pruden Coal & Coke Company's coal camp at Pruden, Claiborne County, TN. The Pruden mines opened in 1906. In 1933 Pruden, which was named for Pruden Coal & Coke's Thomas Pruden, was wrecked by a tornado.
Image from "Scott County, TN Photo Tour and Recommendations" The "powder house" (dynamite magazine) remains from Glenmary Coal & Coke Company's mine that operated at Glenmary, Scott County, TN from 1885 until 1904. Glenmary was a busy, booming company town, housing families not only of miners but also of coke oven and lumber/sawmill enterprises. In addition to the powder house, remains of the beehive coke ovens and a very small number of vintage buildings (homes, churches) remain at Glenmary.
Google Street View image Vestiges of the Eagan coal camp in Claiborne County. The Buffalo Mine at Eagan was operated by the Campbell Coal Mining Co.
Image by others Miners at the Cross Mountain Mine at Coal Creek, Claiborne County, TN. In 1922 there were 285 coal mines in Tennessee. This was at the high point of the Appalachian coal industry, which would crash later in 1922 due to overdevelopment and labor strife, and not fully recover until the 1940's.
Image courtesy of Kerri Hudson Ruins of beehive coke ovens in Tracy City, Grundy County, TN. These are also known as the Lone Oak coke ovens. Other beehive coke oven remnants that are still existing in Tennessee include the ones at Dunlap and ovens near Dayton.
Image by Mick Vest The restoration of the company store at Tracy City.
Image by Mick Vest Statue of a coal miner near Tracy City.
Image from "Scott County, TN Photo Tour and Recommendations" Remaining coal company houses in Oneida, Scott County, TN.
1970s image by Jack Corn, courtesy of The U.S. National Archives Derelict company store in Wilder, Fentress County, TN.
1942 image from FDR Presidential Library This girl is using the only water source for the Wilder coal camp.
1960s image by Jack Corn Wilder coal camp was mostly abandoned by the 1960s. Many of the houses had been demolished by the time this photo was taken.
1990s image by others A few more coal company houses in the Wilder - Davidson area remained by the 1980s.
Mineral Resources of Tennessee image via Google Books Old, old picture of the Lafollette Coal & Iron Co.'s coke ovens at Lafollette, Campbell County, TN. Lafollette was the namesake for one of the Tennessee coalfields.
2014 image courtesy of Caroline Eller A reader contributed this picture of coke oven ruins near Lafollette as they look now. They were once operated by the LaFollette Coal, Iron, & Railway Company.
Google Street View image Coal company houses probably built by the Bear Wallow Coal Co. in the Bear Wallow section of Caryville, Campbell County, TN.
Image from "The Coal Industry" via Google Books Circa 1922 picture of the Mercantile Coal Co.'s aerial tramway at Brookside, TN.
Image courtesy of MSHA Here is a letter found by rescuers in the Fraterville Mine in the aftermath of the Fraterville Mine explosion of 1902. This letter was found with the dead body of a miner who died of suffocation after writing it. Coal Creek Coal Co. owned the Fraterville mine (in Anderson County). This disaster resulted in the death of 216 miners, and was the worst coal mine disaster in Tennessee history.
Google Street View image 21st Century coal mine near Coal Creek, Tennessee.
Mineral Resources of Tennessee image via Google Books Circa 1920 photograph of a coal miner standing in a drift portal into an 84" seam of coal at Fork Mountain, TN (not sure if Fork Mountain in Campbell Co. or Morgan Co.) The coal seam is not named, but most coal seams in Tennessee were not this thick. Productive coal beds in Tennessee have included Blue Gem, Bon Air, Brushy Mountain, Coal Creek, Dean, Pioneer, Red Ash, and Sewanee seams.