History of Coal Creek

The Coal Creek Valley includes the towns of Coal Creek (now Rocky Top), Briceville, and Fraterville. In the 1890s and early 1900s it was the scene of events that changed American labor history and mine safety. Here is a brief look at the stories our museum preserves.

The Coal Creek War (1891–1892)

After the Civil War, Tennessee leased its state prisoners to private companies. Coal operators used these convicts to work the mines at a fraction of the cost of free labor. Company men openly called the system a club to hold over the heads of free miners.

In 1891 the Tennessee Coal Mining Company at Briceville locked out its miners. It tore down miners’ houses to build a stockade and brought in leased convicts. On July 14, 1891, several hundred armed miners surrounded the stockade. Without firing a shot, they marched the prisoners to Coal Creek and put them on a train to Knoxville. When the state sent the convicts back, the miners freed them again.

The conflict grew over the next year. On October 31, 1891, miners burned the Briceville stockade and freed hundreds of prisoners. In early 1892 the state militia built Fort Anderson on Militia Hill overlooking Coal Creek. In August 1892, fighting broke out around the fort and at stockades across East and Middle Tennessee. Lives were lost on both sides and hundreds of miners were arrested.

The miners lost the battles but won the war. The uprising turned public opinion against convict leasing. In 1893 the legislature voted to build a new state prison and end the lease system when the contract ran out. Tennessee ended convict leasing in 1896, one of the first Southern states to do so.

Read the novel: Thistle Switch, a story of the Coal Creek War, is available in the museum gift shop.

The Fraterville Mine Disaster (May 19, 1902)

Early on the morning of May 19, 1902, an explosion of methane gas and coal dust tore through the Fraterville Mine. It remains the worst mine disaster in Tennessee history. The explosion took the lives of 216 men and boys. None came out alive.

Most died in the blast. Twenty-six men survived it and barricaded themselves deep in the mine, hoping for rescue. They lived for hours as the air ran out, and some wrote farewell notes to their families. One read: “Ellen, remember me as long as you live. Good bye, darling.”

Fraterville was left a town of widows and orphans. It was said only three adult men remained in the community. Many of the miners are buried in a circle around the monument at Leach Cemetery.

Read the novel: Letters From the Dark, a story of the women of Fraterville, is available in the museum gift shop.

The Cross Mountain Mine Disaster (December 9, 1911)

Less than ten years later, disaster struck again at the Cross Mountain Mine near Briceville. On the morning of December 9, 1911, a roof fall released methane that was ignited, probably by an open lamp. Of the 89 men and boys in the mine, 84 were killed.

The rescue became a landmark in mine safety. Crews from the newly created U.S. Bureau of Mines came with oxygen apparatus. They reached five survivors who had barricaded themselves near water tubs kept for the mules: Milton Henderson, William Henderson, Theodore Irish, Arthur Scott, and Irving Smith. It was one of the first successful mine rescues in the United States. Two miners who died behind another barricade, Alonzo Wood and Eugene Ault, left farewell messages on its wall.

Many of the victims rest in the Cross Mountain Miners’ Circle at Briceville. A monument placed there by the United Mine Workers lists all 84 names. The Circle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Read the novel: The Watch, a story of the Cross Mountain disaster, is available in the museum gift shop.

Coal Creek, Lake City, Rocky Top

The town of Coal Creek was later renamed Lake City, after Norris Lake was created nearby, and in 2014 it became Rocky Top. The name has changed, but the miners’ story is still told here.

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