Today, Blue Heron is a recreated town that tells the story of the region in metal buildings on the approximate sites of the originals. ![]() Below: Fall colors along the Big South Fork River. ![]() Photo above: Laura Blevins House in Big South Fork. Today there are no original buildings on site, but the town of Blue Heron has now been recreated in the park. After it was abandoned, it fell into disrepair. The community was isolated, with a company store, Mine 18, church, schoolhouse, and more. The Blue Heron, Kentucky mine was opened in 1937, and operated until 1962. Unlike many mines in the upper South, the Stearns company employed a percentage of black workers. The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company of Ludington, Michigan identified the timber, and with access to the north flowing Big South Fork River and the Cincinnati Southern Railway, began to acquire land in 1899, thirty thousand acres. Rugby 1880's, and failed.Īfter the Civil War, companies began to see the Cumberland Plateau for its mineral and timber riches. Colonial settlement was rare, as the area was poor for agriculture and failed colonies sometimes began, i.e. ![]() Once man arrived, it was likely home to Paleo-Indians with European settlement coming around 1769 when the area was inhabited by the Cherokee. Man made the lake, or reservoir, it eventually flows into for hydroelectric power and flood control, Lake Cumberland, but that's outside the park. Basically, through centuries of the water of the Big South Fork River, a seventy-six mile tributary to the Cumberland River, a gorge formed. It is hard not to acknowledge what geology has done for this beautiful park.
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