Your videos continue to evolve each time you make one. I love looking at old photographs. They capture a moment in time which only stays the same in that photograph. Progress has changed things continually and not for the better sometimes. Old pictures take me back in time and really trigger memories of a time that will never return. That is sad in a way but that is the way things are and there seems to be no way to stop it. I really enjoyed this video and look forward to the next one. Thanks for bringing me along.
I grew up in Harlan in the 60's, 70's, 80's , Moved to Tn 1990. I miss my home town as it was. Thank you for the video & pictures.... . So many things have changed. Mack's & Western auto was my shopping place & Fueled at The Direct you showed. As a child growing up. They was the Old A & P, The 5 & dime store, My Uncle managed the Cas Walkers Store. The BC Bus line,, The Harlan city Swimming Pool, The Margie Grand, Went to School at Loyall,. Back then the high school was in same two story building. Then they built Cawood High School. Wish I had pictures of the old days, They're in my mind only, Two house fires took them. Again Thank you for sharing..God Bless.
I always love pictures about town history and how things have changed. Interesting changes. It's sad concerning old stores being gone,especially if you had fun there as a child. Great video.
I can't get over how much Reovista and loyall as well as Harlan itself has changed since I left in 1978. I remember always seeing people fishing off of that bridge's walkway. I also remember many trips to the Barn Store on the Reovista side and the Rag Barn at the other end of this bridge.
Awesome video! My dad was the minister at Loyall Christian church from around 77 to 85. He was also a member of the Harlan county rescue squad. I can remember walking down to the concrete bridge to fish as a kid and going shopping at Mack’s.
I'm remember when gas was .38 cents there. I remembering standing in line as a kid paying for moms gas while she pumped it. I lived in Harlan until I was 10 years old. My mom and dad was born and raised here in Harlan and my whole family. The walters cars Rhoades licenbee Stewart Massingill
My mother, Helen “Sparky” Brent, grew up in the Harlan County area. She graduated from school in Loyall. She then joined the Air Force, became an instructor at Lackland AFB where she met my father. Her father was killed in a coal trucking accident when she was only 7. After that, her mother, Vera, became a nurse and remained in Harlan until her death. My mother passed away in Colorado, her final home of 40 years in 1997. She was a proud and independent woman which I’m sure can be attributed to her hard scrabble up-bringing as a coal minter’s daughter. She was filled with grit and moxie that she gained in the Eastern Kentucky area. Thanks for posting these. They help me understand my mother’s nature.
Eugene Goss hired my dad to build a house on top of Ivy Hill we stayed at a motel in Coal Town just outside of Cumberland. I would love to see that house again.
@@IgnitedCoyote I found a website if you're interested in checking it out. It's about the old Blackstar high school and coal camp. I will link the website for you.www.blackstarcoalcamp.com. Not sure if there will be anything of use for you.
Great video. I enjoy all of your videos. My aunt and uncle used to live right near Macks, us kids used to walk over there from their house when we visited. I think Harlan County becomes part of one's soul. I never lived there, only visited family, but your pictures evoke such wonderful memories. In many ways I feel more connected to Harlan County than where I grew up. Thanks for the great work.
My goodness you are bringing back so many GREAT memories! My dad was born and raised in Harlan, Baxter to be exact! He was educated at a school called Rosenwald! I use to love coming from NY as a child to visit family oh man and the drive across that mountain to Rose Hill va. And getting fresh water out the side of that mountain was the absolute BEST along with the fishing!! We had to relocate from the family old home bc it sat on the river in Baxter that kept flooding! I can remember the flood of 77!! I miss that place a lot! Again Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the old pics. Brings back some childhood memories. I was 11 during the 77 flood. Remember that old Bridge In Loyal. Will be in Harlan the last weekend of August to visit family and decorate parents grave at Resthaven. God Bless
COOL.....i spent summers there at g parents....lived right bhind st police post innsunny acres....i too go to resthaven to decorate g parents graves....they r buried in garden of devotion 6 spaces to the left of the giant stone bible
Before the Mack's Family Center this was the Bunny Bread Bakery . I can still remember the smell of bread baking there . When I was a young kid we would stop there , and buy hot out of the oven unsliced loafs of bread . It was great eating it on the river bank while we were fishing . Before Mack's moved to this location they were right across the river by Harlan Retreading . In that location they had only a Supermarket , and The Wishy Washy laundromat . Seems ages ago , but in reality only a moment in time . Great video , thanks for posting , this brings back some nice memories of my younger days .
My grandmother lived across street from there up on the hill. My uncle and I would go over there and get hot bread too. The coal house across from there. My first layaway was there. My grand mother was Mary Wyatt and John Wyatt. Their sons were JW Wyatt and Marvin Wyatt. Marvin was killed in a car wreck about a mile from there when he was 19.
I have many memories of that time, as a young child watching my great uncle Curtis and aunt Estle build those businesses, but also later on working in them as a teen and during the summers while in college. Not too long after the bakery building was purchased and before it opened as the Family Center we had a great family reunion there. When the '77 flood hit, I was 16 and went to work shoveling the flood mud out of that building. Those days instilled a great work ethic in me that I've been fortunate to have my entire life. Great people in Harlan and I was blessed to grow up there.
Hello, really enjoy your work here. I remember after the '77 flood, I finished up the school year at Elzo Guthrie Elementary I believe was the name, moved to Harlan from Balkan and then back to Pineville until present time. Lived at Bardo, near Leggett while I was there. I'll be watching for Bell Co. video's as it's more home to me. Great work Thanks and God Bless
Oh my Lord! I remember the family center. When we would come in to visit my Big Mom in Verda, daddy & mommy would take her to Mack's to do some tradin. Thank you for sharing this memory!!
I thank you for your efforts to make others aware of the history of this fine place. My family is from this area and I so remember it from my childhood. Looking to get out of California and come to where my roots are if I can do it.
Thank you for showing this I've always found Pikeville fascinating. Ive never been to Harlan but on Google earth I went looking for other measures taken in the region and found the Harlan project. My parents being refugees from Grundy of the 77 flood they found the literal highest piece of land they could in a subdivision in claypool hill VA. That's a true story. Sadly Grundy's flood control happened after the oligarchy took hold of the nation so they tore the town down to build Walmart lol. I can say that Pikeville has prospered beyond imagination from the cut thru. I'm watching my town of richlands/claypool hill slowly become a ghost town but that's the least of our worries at this period in time and glad I'm here. Our government our nation is collapsing but that's a conversation for another day thanks again.
I remember when Macks first opened its big store. That was 1956. Of all the memories of that early opening, I recall that they had a machine that could squeeze fresh orange juice. Now that was progress and modernity all rolled into one! Baxter was a pretty lively little place when I resided there in 1956, 1957 and half of 1958. I attended second and third grade in a four room school just up the road toward Cumberland. One of the rooms was not even used. It was always a treat to stop at Macks on the way home for a treat--when I could afford it. My mom and I moved to Harlan proper.
Thanks I appreciate that! It always seems to me when the media brings a camera into this part of the country they find the absolute worst situation possible to film, I'm not saying situations like that don't exist here, they do and should be dealt with, but there's a lot of good in these mountains and a lot of folks have good memories of them and that's what I try to talk about.
@@IgnitedCoyote Well, don't be surprised, it is the heart of Hillbilly Country. But that's a caricature not a real reflection of the people who live there, and what they're all about. I remember many suffered from deep, deep poverty, with many kids going barefoot in the summer because they could not afford shoes. After the great exodus in the wake of the collapse of coal, I think things will slowly improve there.
There used to be four Mack's stores in Harlan County, three of which were in the Harlan area. One in downtown Harlan, one in the Browning Acres neighborhood, and the one in Baxter. Oh, and there was a Mack's in Evarts. The one in Browning Acres used to be Cas Walker's, and now, it's CVS Pharmacy. The one in Evarts is now a Save-a-Lot. The one in Baxter was torn down, and is now the office of the Harlan County Road Department. And the one in downtown Harlan is now Cash Saver, one of four grocery stores in Harlan, along with Don's Super Saver, Food City, and Save-a-Lot. Of course, there's a fifth option for groceries. That's Walmart.
I used to live in Tremont above Lee Steel. I used to do my laundry at the laundry Matt in Baxter and shopping at Mack's. Pumped a lot of gas at that old station.
Awesome video! I haven't been to Loyall since the early 1980's. I love the old pictures and the comparison to today! Thanks for putting this together, brings back memories I miss seeing the L&N coal trains coming out of Loyall, looks really different nowadays! Thanks for sharing Coyote!
I really enjoyed doing this one. I just wish I could have gotten a hold of more old photographs. I hope to do another in the future if I can get a hold of some more pictures. thanks for watching!
You make great videos Sir, I moved to Bonneville KY from Tampa FL, I really like KY but I would like to move to another part, someplace like I see in your videos.keep up the good work, and God bless you
If you get a chance you can email us some of those pictures and we'll have them if we get to do a video around Floyd County. It's our hope to start doing videos in different places in Kentucky. Our email is coyotesden2000@gmail.com Thanks!
There used to be a siding company called AAA Aluminum Right next to those two bridges if I remember correctly my stepfather worked for a man who owned it. that is where I was at The day that Elvis Presley died. I was just a little guy
My father worked in the coal mines in his younger days..he would talk about some of the hard times had by all and the coal miners that were on strike in 1970 or 71 in Harlan County..do you know any more about this.. would love to know more of the history. Thanks again for the videos.
One thing the pictures don't let people understand is that when you take off from the Harlan Airport the ground disappears below you because you're going off the edge of a cliff down there where you're standing is suddenly what you see below you. They used to do an airshow there back in the 70s and 1 time an airplane in the show took off real real slow and fluctuated his engine so it sounded like he was having trouble and suddenly he dived off that Cliff down and pulled out down there probably about where you are and came back up and flew around and waved at everybody it was a good thrill
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-thmuNT5T8uo.html This is a link to the video we did at Coldiron last year hope you enjoy it. An interesting note on this video, a couple of hours after we finished it we were hit by an intoxicated driver and my wife was seriously injured.
The store there was Russell's Grocery. I rode my bike on the walking bridge and even on the other part. My mother didn't know that. Oh the memories. You sound familiar. What's your real name?
You're missing the big story of the century and Harlan. In almost every video that you show I see tons of kudzu!! You should go out and do some pictures of the places that are covered with kudzu.
Wow..Things really changed! 😦.I personally hate progress. People tend to forget what made a community home to so many back then. You lose the old structures and what made them special. But in the case there progress was needed to control flooding so in that sense it had to be done. I would rather take an old home or business built before 1930 and fix it up than build something new. The building materials today are so inferior. Back then things were built with old growth lumber. It was stronger and will last forever as long as took care of. If old structures had no value then there wouldn't be salvage places selling old doors windows mantles stairs etc..for extreme amounts of money. An old exterior door will run you some bucks!!! Go down to Lowe's and buy one for around 200.00. It will never last you like one built before 1930. I wish I had some old pictures to share...I was laughing my ass off when you said we keep the important papers outside...😂😂😂😂😂😂 omg! And the place had bars all over it..😂😂😂 That was funny. Great video 🇺🇸
