Plan Your Kentucky Tourism to Include the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum

Kentucky Tourism isn’t just about racehorses and rolling hills. It is also about the coal miners that bring the coal to the surface for the production of power to keep the country going. A visit to the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham will give you a taste of what it was like to be a miner in the earlier part of the 20th century. You will learn about the mines and the miners. The building the museum is housed in was built in 1923 after the original building burned to the ground. The original function of the building was as a company commissary.

The artifacts that are on display on the four floors of the museum will give you some idea of the life these brave men lived and the hardship of their families. You will learn how the company actually owned everything from the houses that the miners lived in to the hospital they went to when they were injured or sick. They also owned the store (commissary) where the miners and their families had to buy their supplies. The miners used the company script to pay their way and in order to get silver money a miner got 85 cents in silver for every dollar in script. Life was hard for the miner and his family.

Then take the short trip to Portal 31 in Lynch where you will be able to take a walking tour and see one of the largest coal loading facilities in the world. Next get ready to go into the bowels of the earth with a trip on a rail car into an actual mine. You will wear the clothing that the miners wore and see the sights they saw every day of their working life.