House Coal Hole in Kentucky

A short video showing a House Coal Hole also known as a House Coal Mine in South East Kentucky. As late as the 1960s people would mine their own coal so they could heat their homes and cook.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Coal
• mine
• house
• heat
• fuel
• cook
• Kentucky
• history
• survival
• madbadvoodo
• economics
• engineering
• health
• humanities
• physical
• science
• social

[Draglineoperator]

The term "house coal hole" isn't really a good way to refer to them, any book i have read and the book I'm writing refers to them strictly as "dog holes" or "Ground Hog holes" in my area there are about 400 known openings and thousands more I'm sure. i am in the process of making a map of Ohio and Tuscarawas County of dog holes and small 2 man operation mines. Hopefully it will be done soon.

[MadBadVoodo]

@Draglineoperator If you make a trip 2 SE Kentucky you will see that they are called all kinds of things including House Coal Holes. Ground Hog Holes is a new one on me but my experience is in South East Kentucky and not in Ohio so what do I know LOL!!

[vrghiks]

My Grandpa had one of these on his farm

in Clay County Kentucky.He had a mule by the name of Jim.Jim would pull the sled with the coal back to the house(cabin)about a half mile down the mountain.This was sixty some years

ago.I was born in that cabin that Grandpa

owned.

Thanks for posting this video.This helped to stir some precious memories.

[MadBadVoodo]

Your welcome!

[beau40356]

I worked a with a neihbor that had one of these near his house at 14 years old. He laid rail and had a old cart that held about a half ton we'd push out of the mines after he drilled and shot the coal.

He would tell his wife to pull the cord on his drill...wait 15 minutes and plug it back in for a minute at a certain time of day....After loading holes with explosives he'd hook his electric caps to the cord and leave !

They had kids around the house...Imagine if they had plugged it in early LOL!

[leximinnich]

@norb1937 Wood ;)

[norb1937]

@leximinnich You dont heat your house with coal then what do you heat it with.

[leximinnich]

@norb1937 The Indiana Railroad runs about 25 ft from my back door....my kids run out there to the tracks and come in with big chunks of coal they find and show me..they say "OH MOMMA!! LOOK!!! IT'SSS COOAALL!!!!" we dont heat our house with it, but they sure do like findin it :)

[whimberly1]

How cool is that!?

[norb1937]

@Draglineoperator My mom and all her brothers and sisters used to stand by the railroad tracks with pails when they were kids. When a train came by they'd thumb their noses at the engineer. This prompted the fireman to throw chunks of coal at them They picked up the coal and put it in the pails and waited for the next train. My grandfather had 8 kids so he got plenty of free coal for his stove this way.

[kristidunlap]

Thanks for taking the time to record your local history- we should all do this.

[greasychoppers]

My grandpas place right outside of Corbin had 2 such mines. They had rails and small carts to push in and out. Im not sure if these mines were house holes or not but they are very interesting.