JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
Nestled in the heart of Whitwell, Tennessee on 900A Main Street, is a structure with a rich collection of artifacts relevant to a local industry, which while gone , has not been forgotten.
Whitwell’s Marion County Coal Miners Museum houses a vast array of tools, outfits, photos, and artifacts which tell the stories of the men and women who’ve worked as coal miners decades ago, in an era where coal mining was Whitwell’s largest economic industry, an industry which forever left a mark in the community’s deeply rooted history, outright defining the town’s founding in 1877.
The museum was founded by JT Shadrick, who in 1977 first started his career working in the mines before their eventual closures in 1996. He was inspired by a dream he once had in February of 2010. In his dream he was at a funeral home filled with mementos of mining equipment. The dream was the catalyst which created the idea to establish a museum dedicated to the history of mining within the community. He felt that by doing so, his personal collection of mining equipment would have a permanent and proper home, where it could remain preserved long after his passing.
Since the museum’s grand opening back in November of 2010, it has held a unique place amongst other establishments throughout the community. The museum is currently operated by Shadrick and six other retired miners, whose personal experiences working within the Whitwell mines help provide further context about each tool and every story told through each artifact.
Raymond White, one of the retired miners and volunteers for the museum, explained in detail the various gadgets on display at the museum, such as an oil-wick cap lamp, which was fueled by carbide gas and used for lighting before electric powered lights were introduced to the industry. Another device is a rail horse used by miners for inclining back down from high up the entrances to the mines. White explained how the rail horse was used by miners to make swift trips back down the mountains after a hard day of work within the mines, negating the need to trek all the way back down on foot. One of the many miners who utilized a rail horse was Hugh L. Rankin, who clocked speeds of up to 70 miles per hour when heading downward on the rail line.
Another portion of the vast collection includes several rows of photos that display the many men and women who have worked within the mines of the Whitwell area, including those who have tragically died during the Tennessee Mine Disaster of 1981. The disaster took place at Mine #21, where 13 miners lost their lives due to a cigarette lighter igniting methane gas within the mine, causing a large explosion. A headboard recovered from the disaster, in addition to a knife whose handle is made out of recovered coal from the site are on display at the museum.
Additional items on display include magazine articles, methane detectors, syringe kits, helmets, as well as jerseys worn by the miners during their times off from work. The collection ultimately serves as a physical testament to the men and women who’ve helped forever shape Whitwell’s history into what it is today, history which continues to live on within the confines of Marion County’s own Coal Miners Museum.