Smoke Still Billows From KY Coal Mine Abandoned for 40 Years

I have no data on this, but if you were to ask somebody NOT from Kentucky what they KNOW about Kentucky, you might get answers about horse racing, basketball, and bourbon, and not necessarily in that order. I also doubt you'd go through too many respondents before "coal mining" came up.

Maybe it's because I'm from here, but when I associate a state with coal mining, Kentucky and West Virginia are the top two that pop into my head. Pennsylvania gets a brain wrinkle, as well. But coal mining isn't just a well-known occupation in the Commonwealth, it's part of Kentucky's cultural fabric.

It's one of our most important industries, historically. It was back in 1750--42 years before statehood--when coal was discovered and used for the first time. Forty years later in 1790, commercial coal production began. By the early 1900s, after rampant industrialization had begun, the Eastern Kentucky coal industry exploded. It's an industry that has long been celebrated in Kentucky. There's even a museum dedicated to coal mining in Benham KY.

How appropriate is it, then, that, in a state that celebrates the coal industry, there's a coal mine that still billows smoke even though it's been abandoned for 40 years? And no one knows how long "Ruth Mullins Coal Fire" has been burning inside Lost Mountain. By the way, it was named for the woman who discovered it.

While there are no barriers preventing sightseers from checking out this unique phenomenon, there IS a sign that warns of the presence of dangerous gases, the possibility of the ground collapsing under your feet, and, possibly, your death.

Yes, you can get close enough to see the "eternal smoke," but you've been warned.