Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2014 11 05

Home Browse Search

All the streets in town were "red ash." The mine dumps always caught fire and burned to this end product. It was a cinder -like material which powdered into a fine red dust or ash. When wet, it hardened into a firm surface and resulted in a surface that prevented the streets from becoming muddy quagmires in winter storms or spring rains. Harry Mayor also wrote the following for an article entitled "Red Ash Rooster Tails" that appeared in the Fall 2007 Louisville Historian. The "rooster tails" he described were the red dust plumes from cars that he could see speeding on roads off in the distance. The roads and streets in Louisville and other neighboring coal mining towns were covered with layers of "red ash" to serve as the road bed. Red ash was free for the taking from any of the local coal mines. Each mine had a tremendous dump that was the rock, clay, slate, and poor grade coal dug out of the earth and discarded as the "entries" and "rooms" were dug in the quest for saleable lignite and semi - bituminous coal. This coal was the life blood of each town. The refuse was hauled out of the mine and raised on the hoist to the surface. It was then loaded on a skip and hauled to the top of the dump and released to cascade down the face of the man -made hill. This refuse always caught fire and burned continuously to reduce the mass to a residual red ash. The dump was the bane of our mothers. Dumps were forbidden territory for any kid to explore. But they were fascinating places, and many kids enjoyed the adventure of climbing the dump. However, if your mother ever found out, all hell broke loose. Dire predictions of losing your footing and rolling down the dump through smoke and fire, or breaking your leg or arm (or your fool neck) or falling into a fire hole and being burned alive only heightened the adventure. Each dump was a smoking, smelly cauldron of danger and excitement. Any kid worth his salt explored the dumps in town. (During the Depression, it was an economic necessity to visit the dumps and collect the stray pieces of coal in gunny sacks to keep the house warm — but that is another story.) Although the Acme Mine complex with its buildings was fenced, some families with children lived close by and had easy access to the mine dump. Sisters Marion and Lena Tesone, who were born in 1911 and 1912, recalled in a 1995 oral history interview that they grew up at 541 Main and used to watch coal cars come out and "dump the slack" on the "old coal dump," on Main Street by where the Elks Club was later located. They stated that many Italian children lived on the street and would play street games on Main Street by the mine dump. 15