Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2014 11 05

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According to the February 1997 issue of the Louisville Historian, the dump was seen to be burning for many years. Fire at Acme Mine: A fire in 1927 is said to have destroyed the tipple at the Acme Mine. Two miners working in the bottom of the shaft were pulled out right away, and other miners were able to escape the mine after the fire was extinguished. Since it is known that the Acme ceased operations in 1928, it is possible that a contributing cause of the closure was the destruction of the tipple. After Closure: After the Acme Mine closed in 1928, the mine dump was finally brought down in July 1933. It had been part of the Louisville landscape for a long time and formed a barrier separating the the downtown business district from the south side neighborhoods of Frenchtown (located in the vicinity of Parkview, Rex, and Main) and Kimbertown (located in the vicinity of Roosevelt and Mead). A tongue -in -cheek 1933 article in the Louisville Times compared the newly visible neighborhoods of Frenchtown and Kimbertown to two ships: "The S.S. Kimbertown and the S.S. Frenchtown have been lost to view for more than a generation." The article went on to note that fortunately, the ships were finally able to enter the "harbor of Louisville" and moor next to each other at the dock. The article did not state what became of the Acme Mine dump, which was a mixture of unusable coal, rock, and dirt that had burned down to red ash, but it may have been one of the sources of the red ash that was spread on Louisville's unpaved streets over the years. According to an article in the February 1997 issue of the Louisville Historian, which is believed to have been written by Louisville resident Eileen Harris Schmidt (1927 - 1998), the location of the Acme Mine "later became the site where traveling shows often camped to present their programs to the people of the town." Similarly, Louisville resident Isabelle Hudson has stated that traveling medicine shows would camp out on the site, which was basically a vacant lot, and present shows there to townspeople who would come and sit on the ground to watch. She and Sylvia Kilker, who grew up on County Road next to the Acme railroad spur, have also stated that the old Acme Mine area was used as a baseball and softball field. Although the mine dump was taken down, the Acme shaft was an open shaft for many years after the closure of the mine. John Negri, who was born in 1920 and grew up in Louisville, has stated that as a boy and young teen, he would make money by cleaning out ash pits. He and his friends would fill a wheelbarrow with coal ashes from the ash pits in people's back yards and dump the ashes from the wheelbarrow down the Acme Mine shaft. Others recall teenage boys and young men goofing around the Acme Mine shaft and narrowly avoiding serious harm or death. Eventually, the shaft was closed and the ground is now marked with a small seal: 16