Historic Towns of Benham and Lynch Need Your Support

Two strip mines threaten the historic Harlan County, Kentucky cities of Lynch and Benham. The A & G and Nally & Hamilton strip mines endanger the high quality public water plus homes and buildings listed on the National Historic Register. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has acknowledged the threat by the listing Black Mountain as one of “America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.”

Created almost 100 years ago, Lynch, (U.S. Steel) and Benham (International Harvester), continue to serve as living examples of an important era. By the end of World War II, Lynch was the largest coal camp in the world!

Today you can visit Kentucky Coal Mine Museum in the old Benham Commissary. Visitors can stay in the School House Inn, housed in the Benham “White” School. Tourists can then travel to Lynch and meet the good people at the Eastern Kentucky Social Club, which is in the old “Black” school. You can tour the state of the art underground coal mine, Portal 31.

Lynch represents something that has become part of the Appalachian tradition, the importance and significance of place to people. To a great degree the tragedy of Lynch and Benham has been to see these places as commodities and to use them up. It is one of the few remaining examples of a time when company towns were strewn up and down the region like beads on a string.

Among graduate students, historians and geographers Lynch is used as an example of how we can understand the architecture, the physical relationships and the human relationships in the mountains. It would be a tragedy to see Lynch go the way of many of the other mining communities.

Ron Eller - Professor of History, Univeristy of Kentucky

Bill Turner is the Berea College Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies and Regional Ambassador. He reflects on growing up in Lynch.

I walked the streets that were filled with 11,000 people, 40 nationalities. The companies came, got what they wanted and left. It is a great testament to the people who are trying their best to not only keep their story alive, but to preserve the integrity of their space and place. They do not want to see it destroyed. It says a lot about the American spirit they brought there from all these different places.

When African-Americans, like Bill Turner’s family, came to industrial Lynch from the South, “they could maintain their connection to some land. People were enveloped by the mountains.

Carl Shoupe is a retired coal miner who grew up in Lynch and lives in Benham. After spending an afternoon with some children of Lynch and Benham, he said “They should have the same opportunities to live and enjoy these mountains as we did.”

The proposed A & G strip-mine will destroy part of Looney Ridge above Lynch. They want to mine through streams that feed into the Lynch Public Water System. (U.S. Steel sealed an underground mine to create the reservoir that now provides high quality water. The Benham water supply, originates in Lynch. Tests show that it can support a water bottling plant.)

A & G mines in West Virginia amassed more than one-million dollars in fines. The view from the top of Black Mountain into Virginia gives all a picture of the destruction that their mine will bring to Kentucky. In 2005, while working to expand a road on the A & G mountain top removal mine in Virginia, a three year old boy was killed in his sleep when a boulder crashed through his bedroom wall.

Besides mining through streams that feed the Lynch reservoir, they want to place scores of coal slurry impoundments above Lynch. Mike O’Bradovich is a lifelong resident of Lynch. For 21 years he was a supervisor for U.S. Steel and Arch.

My concern is the amount of water that is going to be in each impoundment, the likelihood that the larger ones would overfill or rupture and wreak havoc on the towns bellow. The other concerns is the damage to the historic homes and buildings in Lynch, especially the Methodist Church, Catholic Church, City Hall and the homes that are closest to the boundary permits and the blasting. I am sure that due to the run off there is going to be contaminants put into our streams!

The proposed Nally & Hamilton strip-mine buts up against the A & G strip-mine on Looney Ridge above Lynch. It will be directly above Portal 31. Experienced underground miners are concerned when a strip mining is active and above their heads. How will this affect the tourists? This mine could destroy the multimillion dollar investment in this underground exhibition coal mine.

Nally & Hamilton is facing a sixty-day notice of intent to sue for their nearly 12,000 violations of the Clean Water Act in Kentucky. They have been charged with falsifying records that could lead to $400 million in fines.

Former underground mine shuttle car operator and Lynch resident Rutland Melton fears that these mines will “destroy our homes. The mountains are our protection.”

Retired federal coal mine inspector and coal miner Stanley Sturgill expresses a view held by many when he said “I love these mountains. God put me here in the mountains. I want to die in the mountains and I do not want to see them go away.”

Bennie Massey served on Lynch City Council for 16 terms and worked underground. He believes that “This is the best place in the world to live,” and that the “little coal they are talking about does not add up to our main resource, water. It is worth more than any lump of coal.