For those who watched Justified, Limehouse and his gang at Noble's Holler was based in part on the history of Coe Ridge (my all time favorite beer drinking backroad when I was younger). Basically, Coe Ridge was a community of freed slaves with only one way in and one way out. No one ever wanted to go in there for most of the 100 years it was a community.
At one point during Justified, I remember texting my best friend something like "doesn't Noble's Holler remind you of the story of Coe Ridge?" He replied with a link to the director talking about how he likes to incorporate real Kentucky history into his shows and how Noble's Holler was derived from Coe Ridge.
Here's a little snippet about Coe Ridge:
"Ezekiel Coe like many other slaves raised additional crops for income. John Coe, Ezekiel’s owner permitted him to plant tobacco on the Coe Plantation. Ezekiel raised tobacco for two decades saving his money to purchase his freedom. “When freedom came automatically at the end of the War, Zeke took his cash accumulation, and, acting upon the advice of Master Coe, purchased 300-400 acres of raw, primitive ridge land on the back of the Coe plantation.”[1] Once freed, Ezekiel began the process of reuniting his scattered family. He and his wife Patsy Ann started a family having nine children. As Ezekiel and his family settled into Coe Ridge more people came to the area. Eventually a sizable number of blacks, mulattoes, and whites settled at the Coe Ridge Colony. The land filled with virgin timber provided wood to build homes and earn extra income. Farming and gathering of wild chestnuts provided food and additional income. From emancipation to the 1880's the colony grew prosperous and lived peacefully. However, some white residents living nearby the colony became resentful. Growing tensions mounted and several white neighbors began harassing children of the colony. This led to several people being killed on both sides of the conflicts.
By the 1920's residents of the colony started moonshining and bootlegging to generate money for the colony. Illicit activities brought the attention of federal revenue agents who continually raided the colony. Additional harassment from federal agents compounded the continued harassment from racist neighbors from the 1920s to 1950s. During these years the colonies reputation for harboring outlaws and rejected whites increased. However, by 1958 virtually all residents of Coe Ridge left for industrial jobs in Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Illinois.
There are very few surviving accounts of the Coe Ridge Colony. William Lynwood Montel a retired anthropology professor of Western Kentucky University published The Saga of Coe Ridge: A Study in Oral History in 1981. Montell uses oral histories to reconstruct the history of Coe Ridge Colony. One of the most important sources comes from Samuel S. Coe, born in 1879, and a grandson of Ezekiel Coe. Samuel Coe published the Chronicles of the Coe Colony in 1930 and the book was republished in 2007. Coe Ridge, born out of the Civil War, persevered through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Prohibition, and two World Wars. Nestled in Cumberland County, Kentucky, the Coe Ridge Cemetery is the only physical remnants of the lost colony."
