Imagine a wall of water falling 60 feet into a boulder-strewn gorge, a whispering mist that kisses the face and a magical moonbow visible on a clear night under a full moon. Known as the "Niagara of the South," the 125-foot wide curtain of water is dramatic day or night. But it's only at night during a full moon that you can see the moonbow, a phenomenon not found anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere!
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Camp Fire

There's just something about a campfire. Even after a hot day and the evening cools down its relaxing just to sit around and watch the flames flicker.

Parade?

We're going into the small town of Whitley City today They are suppose to have something going on at the court house grounds today.

Blue Heron Tipple

I guess heard wrong,no parade. We drove down to the Blue Heron Tipple and village. This was very interesting. They had different buildings with a recorded voice in each one. The voices were of the people that lived and worked in the mines there.
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Railway

The Big South Fork Scenic Railway runs from Stearns up to the Blue Heron Tipple. This is a 3 hour round trip through the deep gorges and rock cliffs. We didnt ride the train we drove the car as it is only 5 miles from the campground.
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Rock Cliffs

Here's Nancy on the hiking path around a large rock in the mountain.
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Over Look

This overlook is called Devils Jump Overlook. It is a nice view of the rock cliffs and the river below. We find natural beauty in all the places we have been as we travel. It is best to get off the interstate highways and discover these places.
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Blue Heron Tipple and House

This is a typical picture of the coal mine tipple. It could have been taken in any of the states that had coal mines and camps. It reminds me of the coal camp where I grew up in southern West Virginia in the 40's and 50's. Here is the story of the Blue Heron Mining community in Mccreary County,Kentucky.

Blue Heron created a string of impressions for those who first went there to live or work had moved from other coal camps in the Stearns Company or in the region. When some arrived they thought the landscape was beautiful, but those who were accustomed to the vast expanse of mountains, river and woodlands paid more attention to that all metal tipple and the hope of good mining.
Still others, particularly the women resented the isolation, being too near the tipple, the lack of transportation in and out, and the pervasive dirt and noise of the screening operation. Some had breathing troubles there, but others merely objected to the small size and remoteness of the camp.
Men, more than women, seemed to enjoy it there. It appealed to the mountaineer spirit and the love of tramping the mountains, good friends and the comrade of mining. It meant independence, and good fishing along the river.
Some loved Co-operative camp because it was a clean and "open" feeling camp with more people, more entertainment and activities and more friendliness in general. Other people favored Fidelity because it was a prettier camp but still had the natural wildness associated with Blue Heron, but without the dirt and rattle of the big tipple.
Others admitted Blue Heron’s beauty, some claiming it to be well kept, others saying it was a pretty place with flowers in the yards, vegetable gardens, a few cows and goats kept by some and some of the tree trunks painted to give a sense of brightness to the spot.
No one, however, seemed to prefer it to where they had worked or lived before. When one old timer declared his preference for Blue Heron over the other camps, his son retorted, "You must not have heard him right Dad."
Money was scarce and luxuries few. Owing the store for charges was common among many. The notion of getting away from coal camp life was not as possible for girls raised in the camps as for boys who could enter the service when they came of age.
Women had only their female teachers as role models for working outside the home, though a few women across the years were employed at the company store. When movies and, eventually, television influenced the hopes of coal camp women, other ways of life seemed more possible.
Early in the Blue Heron years, women knew no alternative to a life of marriage and children and caring for a miner husband, and his household. Later, greater access to education and knowledge of the work through limited travel, radio and television changed the hopes and aspirations of many.
Women, typically had five or more children, and occupied themselves entirely with family life. Few worked outside the home, as there was neither a place to work nor time free of house chores.
Today, in many coal mining areas across America, some women become miners wives, and others also become miners. Changes in both technology and society have altered both expectations and realities of mining camp women’s lives.

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Inside the Forest

We are camping at the Blue Heron Campgrounds. The name comes from the Blue Heron Mining Co. One of the many coal mining companies of the area that flourished in the 30's thru the 50's and some to the 60's.
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Do You Yahoo?

We do. Actually this is Yahoo Falls in McCreary County,Kentucky. At 115 feet,this is the highest waterfall in Kentucky. You can hike around the mountain and under the falls,back up to the top of the falls. Not a lot of water,yet a waterfall.
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