Portal 31 Mine Tour

Saturday, June 13, 2015 - Big Stone Gap, VA

We were not real sure what we were going to do today.  We stopped by the H.W. Meador Coal Museum, but it was not open.  They recently changed their Saturday hours to 8am - 10am.  Not open very long.  :) 

So we headed for Dari Delight for a peach milk shake.  We had been told we needed to try one, so we did.  They were very good!  :)

Mitch and Sandy told us about the highest point in Kentucky, which just happens to be on the next mountain top over.  They also said that there is a mine tour over in Lynch, Kentucky.  So we decided we would head there, just to check it out.

On the way up the mountain we saw a mother bear with her 2 cubs.  The second cub is hard to see in the picture, but he is there.  :)

Once we made it to the top of the mountain we saw a sign for an FAA Radar, so we drove up there to check it out.  The sign is very obscure and old.

The road became a gravel road.  No surprise there. 

It was about a mile up the road.

Here is the sign for showing this is the highest mountain in Kentucky. 

 It is only a short distance from Virginia.  There is a brown sign that is hard to see in the picture that says Welcome to Virginia.

We continued down the mountain to Lynch, KY and arrived at the Portal 31 Mine.  We got there about 15 minutes before the next tour was due to start, cool.  We found out we needed to pay for the tour at the museum, which is in the town of Benham, KY, which is the next town down.  They let us go on the tour and asked us to go to the museum after the tour and pay.  Tour took us into the mine.

They have set up several exhibits of animated figures telling you the story of mining from 1912 when the mine opened to 1963 when the mine closed.

After the tour we checked out the other exhibits at the entrance of the mine.  This is the one that I found the most interesting.  Some of these horses at the mine never saw the light of day.

We also found out the town of Lynch and Benham were both built by companies.  Lynch by US Steel and Benham by International Harvester.  Just before the mine closed the houses were sold to the miners for a very good price.  We drove on down the road to Benham to go to the museum to pay for the tour.  The museum was going to be closing soon, so we just walked around the town.  The was a Coal Miners Memorial Park.

While at the museum we did ask them about places to eat around the area.  They suggested we go to Cumberland, which is the next town down the road and eat at Charlotte's Hoagie Shop.  It was very good.

When we arrived there was an accident right out front and the police from Cumberland, Benham and Lynch were all there.  The waitress told us there is not much going on in theses towns, so they always show up at any accident in any of the towns.  :)

On our way back we stopped at the top of the mountain again and took a couple of pictures at the scenic overlook.  :)

It was another wonderful day!