We had them in old quarries that vented limestone mines in my area. We used to hang out near them when they still used them.

What is the name of the narrator on this video? How can I contact him? William Lynn.

Thank you for this! My great-grandfather, Joshua L. Mitchell, built the #10 trestle for Moore Bros. His family’s picture is with one of the Atlanta Constitution articles you showed. I’ve been to the site but didn’t know it was now part of the rail-trail system. I had never seen some of the other photos you have here! My father researched this before his death. I wish he’d lived to see your video or to be able to go to the site.

Underground mule stables!

Brilliant, man. Absolutely top-notch! My only suggestion would be to slow it down 50% or so for your appreciators who may not (ahem) see or read so fast anymore. But keep on. You’re piling up fans

My wife's grandfather grew up in Tracy City in the 1920, 30's and early 40's. We sat for hours and talked about growing up there. Nothing was easy. He talked about taking a man's mule and plowing several acres of bottom land for less than 50 cents a day during the depression. There were no jobs and at times no money or food. What you grew or hunted was about it, a lot of days. He also talked about going with his father to hear John L Sullivan talk to the coal miners about joining the Mine Workers Union. They finally did and months later most all of the union support stopped and mining support went to West Virginia and Kentucky because much more coal was coming out of the ground. More mines and miners meant more dues so he dropped them like a hot potato. The people in Tracy City didn't have many good things to say about him. Interesting enough her grandfather stayed strong in his faith in God and moved later to an area that had better jobs and he lead a pretty good life. At no time in his life good, honest, hard work was never a problem.

It's a nice feeling when you see a video like this and the videographer is documenting a proud history of coal mining and not knocking the industry and the people who worked the mines. My family used to go to church out on the mountain. The congregation had a lot of miners. On Sunday mornings, you could always tell who the miners were because they would be all fresh and clean. Except for the telltale line of coal dust on their lower eyelashes. Thank you for the video and bringing back some wonderful memories. God bless those coal miners, their footsteps have long quit the place but they sure left their mark.

Excellent video. We traveled through there when I was a kid and saw those ovens. Had no idea what they were at the time.

My mom was born and raised in Walker County. She’s still going strong at 89 years of age. Her dad, my grandfather, was a coal miner and father of seven children. He and my grandmother left in 1952 because the mine played out. I’ve shown her a couple of videos and she really enjoys reminiscing. She said she went to church at Snoddy’s Chapel. At any rate, thank you for sharing this video. I welcome any replies from viewers as well.

When I was little my mom worked at the K-Mart near the top of flint ridge just down from the TCI/USS HQ and my dad would take me to see her when she worked the night shift. He and I would sit in the car and watch the flames coming from the stacks dance in the distance until I fell asleep. Sadly, since they scaled back the plant operations and Walmart left, the area has become the site of many shootings and like most places that have an economic downturn when industry leaves or scales back, drugs, alcohol, and violence are starting to take hold of the area. The city even disbanded the police force a couple years ago due to a lack of funds and now the sheriff's office has jurisdiction of that area from what I remember. Sad to see what appears to be a company that built the town, turn its back on it and throw it away when they've gotten all that they wanted or that it isn't as profitable anymore and leave all the damage to the environment and health of the nearby residents that industry causes as a by-product of advancement.

It's always interesting. Never know what you might find.

Very nice🎉🎉

If you plan to visit these now days you better bring a lot of heavy equipment. They buried them in about 70 feet of dirt and rock and built a new high school on top of them.

There were operating coke ovens in Rockwood, Tn that you could see from above as you went up I40 on the mountain.

Very cool

Nice video . Well done ! Very interesting .

Is this Jeff and Josh underground Birmingham by any chance?

I’m gonna put in for ya’ll a raise!!! But seriously, ya’ll have done it again! Thank you for recording all this for posterity!!

Birminghams biggest mistake as a city was tearing this down.

Interesting video and l concur on the spray paint. Thanks 😊

Both mines I worked in had rail. Super nice getting around. I watched a video of a diesel man-trip... yeah... no thanks. Nice video of the longwall in operation.

Great work! I worked at US Steel in the land development, we still had documents and maps of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company in map drawers.

thanks for showing. I was eight years old when the terminal closed. A group of kind ladies rounded up a group of us kids who had never been inside the terminal. They arranged for someone who had worked inside the the terminal to give us an inside tour of the place. It was most interesting . It's too bad it wasn't saved.

Makes me miss working there. Thought I was going to work there some more a while back but got cancelled. May just have to visit sometime anyways.

What is the name of the first piece of music?

Yo guys, I got some mines on buck mtn. Right outside of weatherly, hit me up

Enjoy your videos🎉

Wow, great find.

That was an awesome discovery and exploration of this mine and haulage tunnel!! Can't wait for more exploration of this coal slope mine.

Absolutely love your videos, and I truly appreciate your taking the time to put them together. To be totally honest, I never knew how much I liked the history of coal mines until I started watching your videos. I've always been a steam locomotive / early railroad fan (even working for years on the L&N 152 steam locomotive with my father as volunteers at the Kentucky Railway Museum), but your videos have added a true depth to my understanding of King Coal and the railroads. Can't thank you enough. All my best.

My grandfather worked in the mine. My father was born in Marvel. My family lineage.

Whitwell is pronounced Wittwool by most people I know.

Those wheels for the hoist are called sheaves. I operated an vertical shaft hoist when I was a kid and mined underground. Bad place to be.

Why do you all ignore the history of the operation of the mines? . Why do you refuse to give your very good videos any context. Who really cares about a coke bottle? Without context and history you are working your tails off for what in the end is an immense vanity project. Nobody is going to “scoop your booty” as the cavers say if you give a little history. I am of course assuming you know it.

Purchasing property up on that mountain, would love to know where you got that copy and if you have it scale to the U.S. Topo map circa 2016?

Thank you. I’m trying to visualize all of what my Pawpaw, great grandfather Joe, and his dad, Petr went through. Petr fought in the Russian Civil War against both the Boshkevik communists AND the Tsarists, so it was a multi way war. He made his way through the Russian Empire (including modern day Ukraine), Poland, and then Slovakia. And then was recruited there to work the coal mines of Brookside. Unfortunately, Petr was killed by the Klan in either the early 1920’s, when my Pawpaw Joe was only about 12 years or so old. He had to take over and help provide for himself and his mother. It really messed him up (understandably) and he had developed a drinking problem, and when he had my Pawpaw, Tyrone, in 1938, and was unfortunately abusive. Luckily, later in life, he sobered up, and made amends with my Pawpaw. Joe died in 2001 when I was 5, so I kind of remember him a little. Luckily, my Pawpaw Tyrone broke the cycle of drinking, and was never physically abusive to his kids. He died in 2022 right before my 26th birthday. All 3 of them had quite a few (often literal) battles with the Klan, although by the late 50’s, it definitely settled down a lot. So yeah, I’m here because Russian and Sicilian immigrants were coal miners lol

When they smelt the ore, where did the remains of the rock end up? It had to be a tremendous amount.

I enjoy your explorations!! That red-ore mine with the four slope haulage ways was amazing and thank you for showing it to us!!! I love the double-horizon adjustment they had to put in for the hauling equipment so they could reduce the strain of hauling stuff up its always amazing see that type of over-and-under engineering occurring.

Things go better with coke 🎉

Wow that was a huge one. Looks like you could have driven a tractor trailer rig through it. Well done !

Let's go! See ya in the next hole brother! Hike all the way up a mountain then all the way down the slope then back up and back down lolol :)

I am from another state and have been there. It is sure worth the trip. Many things to do in Gadsden and near the falls. I would go again if I had time. Train to ride and many other things to do. Never saw the coal mines.

Greatly appreciate all the work that went into this. Well done sir!

we had them in our area used to after a shift was done is cut off the coal car at the top and wait for the big crash at the bottom we would lol fun when you are 12 yrs old but we did it lol.

They are surface stripping the old twin pins place now. And a pit about 7 miles away on blue creek road. We uncover the old mine shafts all the time. Pretty cool to see what it was back then.

Love Pratt City, lived there 1950's,

Lived in Mulga 1954 to 1957, drove through Bayview once in 3 yrs. Great video❤❤❤

It's absolutely amazing, sir! Thank you for this!

Thankyou for the history video on the railroad evolution in Birmingham!! I enjoyed it. I like the comparative photo overlays too.

Fantastic video! Great job.