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Lynch , KY history...fascinating article

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wildcatdonf

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I know Mike and Mary Jo O'Bradovich. Mike worked for me for a few years in Lexington. He was my Assistant Manager, and the best employee that I have ever had. Mary Jo is a beautiful woman.

Very good post.
 
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dgtatu01

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That’s good stuff. Those pictures are amazing. Especially that baseball field and crowd in the 1920’s. Hard to believe there was a town that prosperous in Harlan County.
 
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gollumcat

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dgtatu01 said:
That’s good stuff. Those pictures are amazing. Especially that baseball field and crowd in the 1920’s. Hard to believe there was a town that prosperous in Harlan County.
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...... the thing I can't believe us the population drop....that's 94 percent.
 
JDHoss

JDHoss

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Thanks for posting. I used to drive over Black Mtn. from VA on Sunday to get the Herald-Leader so I could read about the UK football and basketball games in the days well before the internet. I also got to see the Lynch Bulldogs once when they came over to Appalachia for a rare Saturday night game. They got trounced, but they had a nice running back by the name of Joe Washington who ran for way over 200 yards that night.
 
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_ukcat

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Thanks for the Great Story Link. My dad and Granddad worked for US Steel in Gary, W.Va. Then when US Steel opened the Coal Prep plant in Corbin to process coal from Lynch my Dad was transferred to Corbin when it opened in 1956.
 
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gollumcat

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1UKFan said:
Born in Lynch in 1940 so I got to see Lynch at its best while growing up. Attended Lynch Grade School for 7 years and then we moved to big city Cumberland.
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I'd be interested to know a little bit about what it was like to grow up there then. What Camp number did you live in? What did you do for fun? What nationalities and languages do you remember hearing? If you dont mind sharing I think this would be interesting to hear.
 
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AustinTXCat

AustinTXCat

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Old-school EKY. When I worked up that way 3 + decades ago, I remember lots of folks describing how great life back in the old coal camp was to them way back when. Pictures from the report were stunning.
 
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JDHoss

JDHoss

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AustinTXCat said:
Old-school EKY. When I worked up that way 3 + decades ago, I remember lots of folks describing how great life back in the old coal camp was to them way back when. Pictures from the report were stunning.
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My dad's family lived at the foot of Black Mtn. on the VA side in the coal camp of Inman. Even when I was a kid, they still had the commissary (company store) and used to love going in there with my dad's aunt because she'd always buy me a piece of candy. They drew water out of a sulfur spring. It stunk like Hell, but was so cold it would hurt your teeth.
 
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1UKFan_rivals376580

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gollumcat said:
I'd be interested to know a little bit about what it was like to grow up there then. What Camp number did you live in? What did you do for fun? What nationalities and languages do you remember hearing? If you dont mind sharing I think this would be interesting to hear.
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Good questions. I lived in what we called the lower end or camp number 1, about 4 or 5 houses up from the ball field. I guess all of us boys spent more time on that ball field than anywhere else. You asked about nationalities- really kids never thought much about that because all our play mates born here talked just like we did so we never thought much about it. We knew some of the parents talked different but that never bothered us. I never realized until later years that we grew up in a real united nations camp. We were all poor but it never entered our minds because we were all the same.
 
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mhroe1984

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Very cool stuff! I'm a History teacher so this kind of stuff fascinates me, especially as it pertains to our own state.
 
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_ukcat

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MrHotDice said:
Lynch used to have a great high school football program.
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The story was US Steel would transfer in the dad from one of their Pennsylvania or W. Va. jobs if he had a really good football playing son and Lynch needed a player for a position.
 
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jameslee32

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It really is fascinating to read. I can relate somewhat. I had a friend who lived there for a time and later ended up going to Cawood HS. He was a very private guy that mostly kept to himself up here in the city. My maternal great-grandfather also worked for US Steel in Chicago and my paternal great-grandmother grew up in Pike County coal country.
 
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crazyqx83_rivals88013

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I am always interested in these towns, especially the ones established by coal companies as coal camps.

Was recently rewatching Harlan county USA and was intrigued by what one wife of a miner said. The women were all bickering about one or two of them taking another one's man and she said something to the effect of how she wasn't after a man she was after a contract (union) because she was raising two sons. I took it as her implying that it was inevitable that they would end up working in the mines and she was fighting for their protection even though they weren't even old enough to work there.

It's obvious that much of eastern Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia were brainwashed that their existence depended on coal. That still resonates today.
 
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