Big Run Mine

Prior to the start of the twentieth century, Kentucky Coal was being removed from the earth. There were no large machines, of any type, being used to extract the coal from the bowels of the earth. The old method of "Pick and Shovel" and the strong backs of man took the coal. Mules and donkeys were used with mine cars to haul the coal from the underground coal mines. Some surface mining was being done, but that coal was of a lesser quality and there were very few seams where this coal was near the top of the ground. It would be years before coal would be "King" of Ohio County and of the Western Kentucky Coal Fields.

In the first part of the twentieth century, electric producing power plants were being built that burned coal in their furnaces to produce the heat which in turn produced the steam that turned the generators that produced the electricity. Echols Mine was a company owned mine that supplied all of the coal that it could produce to Louisville Gas and Electric Company. Of course, the electricity went to Louisville and not to Ohio County. It would be years later and in the forties before the small Ohio County towns would be electrified. In about this same time frame, some local people were made aware of a coal seam in Rockport and Rockport Coal Company was established to mine this coal. The Rockport Mine did not last long and by the early years of the forties, the Echols Mine was shut down.

Ah, by the mid forties, Ken Bixby, a northern and an experienced coal miner, leased some land in the Echols area and he started a strip mine. The mine would soon blossom and become big enough for Peabody Coal Company to become interested enough to purchase the mine, as well as other coal leases in Western Kentucky, and as the old adage goes, "The Rest Is History".

In the nineteen-fifties, "Coal Did Become King" and would hold that title until the late nineties. Before the twenty-first century arrived, coal was no longer king and very few coal mining jobs existed in this area. On November 28, 1997 Ken Mine made its' last coal run. Most of the other Peabody Mines were either already shut down or would soon be shut down. The good jobs and the large amount of "Coal Tax Monies" to the local counties ceased to exist. Goodbye King Coal.

In 1979, a total of 2,343 Ohio Countians worked in five underground mines and 33 surface mines. By 2005, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted only 109 mining jobs in Ohio County. In 2006, Big Run Mine, owned by Patriot Coal Company, was listed as the county's last remaining underground mine when it closed. The 140 employees at the Big Run Mine were the last of the miners in Ohio County. As the coal companies were shutting down and moving out, most thought that all of the coal had been mined and mining jobs would never return. That is not quite the case as other coal companies and experienced miners were watching the situation and biding their time. Environmental concerns about the high sulfur content of the coal in the Western Kentucky Coal Fields were a main contributor for the reason for coal mining to cease, but that is another story. In 2009, the president of the country and I paraphrase, put out a warning that any company could try to build a coal burning power plant, but he would see to it, that the cost of the operation of the plant would soon break the company. But that again, is another story.

Timing, coal knowledgeable people, unknown coal reserves, and the state government, have a lot in common for the Armstrong Coal Mines being in this area. With government incentives, the St. Louis-based Armstrong Coal Co. announced it will reopen the Big Run mine in Centertown, about 30 miles south of Owensboro. Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher announced on August 3, 2007 that Armstrong Coal Company would reopen the Big Run Coal mine. The project should create 923 new jobs with a total annual payroll of more than 45 million dollars. Armstrong wasted no time and by the middle of the next year, the newly opened Big Run Coal Mine would become operational. The mine would only operate for a little over three years, but nothing changed except the name. Kronos Mine was opened in October of 2011. The Kronos Mine was opened in the Big Run Mine area and, as planned and situated, became operational to replace the Big Run Mine. Just another way knowledgeable people, that understand mines and companies, knowing that the mines must make a profit to stay in business, plan and take action to remove the black gold from the earth.


See you......
jrd