What We Found INSIDE This Abandoned Company Store in Harlan County 

amazing but also a bit sad to see what soon all will be forgotten all across the country... hard to believe all these places were alive and a thriving community. like route 66 and all the places along the way. I wish something was left but most is gone

I lived at Mary Helen when I was a little girl, my family went to this store, diner, Dr. Office a lot. As I watched this video I could almost see my family in there. As an adult, I always wanted to go inside this place and see what they saw, I was very young and don't have any memories of my own. Thank you so much for this video!!!!

My aunt and mother worked in the diner during the mid 1980s when it was still operational. Seeing those booths reminded me sitting with my mother and my aunt bringing me out a plate of French fries, good memories 🥲!

I started in the mines 60 years ago. The day I was hired, the mine superintendent walked me over to the company store to get me what I would need to go into the mines - miner's belt, lunch/water pail, boots, etc. Though I didn't have any money with me, he told me it would be taken out of my first pay check. Starting union scale was $3.35/hr, I think. That was a lot of money then for a kid who just quit school.

My first full-time job after high school in 1968 was in the Clinchfield Company Store in Dante, Virginia. I was making $1.62 an hour.

My grandpa lived in that holler and we played in the grass next to the store and went to that store we ate in that deli where are we used to get the best hamburgers bologna sandwiches early in the morning we would stop in the general store before school and get a RC cola and a moon pie some of the best memories of my life around that store

I had the pleasure of working there many moons ago.

That's called a "Tin ceiling" made of sheets of tin or thin steel, very popular till the 1950s when drywall came into being.

i worked there from 1985 till 1995 great company to work for

That building is so WWI and WWII I am truly impressed... You have to date that structure. The outside looks early 1950s.

This company store looks very familiar to me. I have been in company stores before back when they were going concerns. My grandfather was a coal miner in Evarts, and my father drove a bakery truck that delivered bakery products to company stores, country stores, and grocery stores in the towns and communities in Harlan County. In the summer, I would go with him to make deliveries. I was about 9-10 years old. A valued experience in my history.

Back in the day many , many years ago The Mary Helen Coal Camp was a very active place , with quite a few company owned houses . I can barely remember when one of my Uncles lived there . My mom's cousin was the Postmaster there for many years , and he ran the commissary as well . BTW I worked there back in the mid 1980's when it was called Great Western Coal Co , but at this time all the old houses were long gone . At one time they employed a lot of people . Great video , thanks for posting .

My daddy was born at the camp in coalgood in 1937. My great uncle John Noe ran the barber shop in the Mary Helen company store. I have probably 70 or more letters that my uncle Charles Walker wrote and my family wrote to him in the Second World War. They had old Harlan postcards etc in them. He was killed in Belgium and is buried at rest haven with my grandparents

Tennessee Ernie Ford wrote a song about the horrors of working for the coal companies. It was called Sixteen Tons. I didn't understand what this was about till I was in my 30s and happened to read an article in the newspaper. Owing your soul to the company store meant that the system was rigged so that you never actually made enough money to pay off your debt to the company store. Which meant you could never leave. Some Lyrics: You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store

I figure we outta be still digging for Coal and Drilling for Oil!

Loved all the comments from people that lived there or nearby! On the slim chance that someone in the know would know that it would be prudent to AT LEAST cut the tree's out that are invading the structural integrity of this old building, if not save it for something useful like tourism.

Loved growing up in cawood and around all these beautiful places

gonna try to get my 87 yr young mom down to harlan soon, she is the daughter of clarence johnson, love her telling me stories of their life growing up in the hills and how they lived

Awesome video. Thanks for helping to keep our Appalachian history/heritage alive. ❤

My Dad Carlos Howard (Sleepy) said he ate alot of good hamburgers in that restaurant. My Sister's and I caught the bus there.

Ghost towns and their ghosts make me sad these days. Still fascinating but I understand the loss it represents.

Thanks for takin us along with yall !! enjoyed it !!

That is nice going back to see what is left of a coal mine area and the buildings and yes in the dinner the old menu would have been the icing on the cake to read it and the pricing as well thank you for the tag along ⛏️🇺🇸

I owe my Soul to the company store…….

I spent a lot of time exploring the coal fields. in Appalachia, in the 1990's, but never ran across Mary Helen, I don't believe. Interesting tour. Thank you.

Video made us both smile, we took many of our student groups to this building and I remember the diner well! So cool. We talked to the mine foreman once and the students learned about coal mining. Also students like the bridge over the tracks ... Great for photos ... and the inside of the Methodist Church is wonderful. Great video

If you know Richard farmer he is from Mary Helen he lives in Harlan now on Cherry Street

4:20, It was called pressed tin. You could buy these tin tiles out of a catalog to dress up ceilings that were usually bead board versus plaster, which was much more expensive and labor intensive.

Mom and Dad talking about the old cold camp company stores can help people used to go and get things on credit.

Hey Mr and Mrs coyote hope you have a blessed day 🙏 😊

Love this. I used to eat at the place like this at the Great Western coal company in Coalgood Ky.

Guys another video that I really enjoyed went you were following behind your wife and she was pulling the tree limbs and you said something back to her that was really funny anyway God bless y'all and papa coyote who I hope is having a wonderful weekend

My first time seeing one of your videos. This was so neat to see. Thanks for posting it.

I don't know if it's still there, but a post office was later across the road in the old Bow Valley office building.

I wonder if there are any " company stores" still in use? It's amazing how fast nature will reclaim an abandoned place. They had those cage light fixtures at my last job. I called them submarine lights, because they look like the lights you see on submarines in war movies. I was in a little country store in Casey county a few years ago that had the screen door with a Wonder Bread sign on it..

Excellent video as always too bad buildings like these couldn’t be preserved

So great showing the way of life on your part of the world.

Great video Coyote's! Great to see some coal mining still happening, sad it isn't as huge as it used to be. Cool place! Thanks for sharing it with us!👍

My grandfather grew up in Harlan County. He wrote a book about it. Growing up Hard in Harlan, by GC Jones sr.

Hey! I marveled at the tin ceiling in the company store! That was used in just about all buildings of that style at that time! Thanks again for the video

In the mid 1970s to early 80s I worked for Jeffrey Mining Machinery in Columbus Ohio. A coal mining company named Helen Mining was one of our customers and I remember seeing several mining machines for Helen being built at the Jeffrey Plant. I wonder if Helen and Mary Helen are the same company. Great job documenting these abandoned facilities and towns.

My great grandmother went to the Methodist Church at Mary Helen

Very informative video Coyotes!! Amazing how nature reclaims everything.

My grandfather quit school in the third grade to go work in the coal mines of Herrin, IL. 8-9yrs old. When he was older, he slipped and fell, his left hand landed on the coal car track cutting off his 3 middle fingers. The next day the coal company fired him because he couldn't do the work anymore. He worked long enough to get Black Lung...

I wish y'all could find someone to tell you some stories about that store.

Great vid!! Keep em coming!!!

Great video, thanks!

3:58: That paper dated Feb. 16, 1983...

Just subscribed, very interesting thanks so much. You guys did a wonderful job.💯🇺🇲🙏

Came across your channel. I have heard of this place from family that still lives in Kentucky. Beautiful old building. Sad, it wont be long before the building fully collapses. Those trees are starting to under mine the supports. Still amazing though. Thanks for sharing.

In the 60’s my grandfather was a mine inspector in Harlan leaving later in the decade.

Always enjoy your videos.

I just got through reading a book by G.C. "Red" Jones entitled "Growing Up In Harlan County." I enjoyed the book about during the depression times, but he did speak of uncomfortable periods of mine worker unions. Is there anybody who is familiar with the book or G.C Jones? 😊

there would have to be old housing in the area since they had a store and post office so somewhere on that property is a bunch of either empty houses or foundations of where they stood

My cousin Vernon Blanton lives in coal good.im wayne from Amboy il.

just think of how many people came in and out of that place if the walls could talk

Another great video

Kept America alive

St. Peter don't call me cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store.

When you all put the camera showing back towards the kitchen there was a table or something leaning against the wall under that table looked like a cat laying there

I owe my soul to the company store.

I go by this old building 6 days a week

We are all shopping at the company store nowadays

Too bad they cannot get a bunch of old retired craftsman and tradesmen like me together to restore that neat old building.... Hey guys advertise to restore that place it is historic. Maybe even funding is out there to be had.

Was Mary-Helen Coal Co named after the community or, was the community named after the coal company?

You can grow marijuana way back in the pines. Or work for the man, down in the mines. We used to sing this underground on the belt crew.

When did it close?

There may be someone there to help them . I think I see him coming through the wall.

Now that’s my type of woman!

❤

I bet those Plywood booths go all the way back to WWII era and I mean it. There was a cafe where I grew up along the RR tracks and eventually the Cafe did better that the rail road ever did well into the early 1990s we ate them same style Plywood booths... There was also the Fairgrounds in Allentown Pa. Same thing at the fairgrounds eatery called THE RITZ the same plywood booths still survive to this day only they added some cushions for butts like mine. I believe the RITZ dates to 1939 or 1940... Do your Google history folks I did not okay. I am a jack ass I post what I can remember with my last high octane brain cells.

👍👍👍

There's a town in Pennsylvania that has a coal mine underneath it on fire that made the town unlivable- let's think about this a second, the same coal we dig out of the ground and burn topside is so toxic that when it caught fire underground I caused land to be unlivable?

You shovel sixteen tons and what do you get...

How close is this to lynch?

Sounds like they're crumbing old mines and washing the coal there, then shipping it out.

Where is Boyd Crowder??

Ya load 16 tons and what do ya get..another older and deeper in debt st. Peter don't cha call me cause I can't go I owe my soul to the Company Store.....

The saying: I sold my soul to the company store, was unfortunately all to true.

Tried to watch this 15 minutes ago and there was no sound now their is 🤷

Einstein's theory of relativity is at play all around there, if you're married, it's probably to a relative!

History slowly fading away . Such a shame : (

Lots of robbery took place there

The lively neighborhoods China killed in just a few decades is mind bogglin thoughts folks... I mean what a beautiful place and that lady in the video has a wonderful chest on her too... I mean holy cow,,,,

Enslaved to the old coal companies of the past, paid by company script that you could only spend in the company store, under paid and goos over priced.

Liberal politics put coal business out of business, lost 2 power plants in my home town!

Slaves and laborers

The light fixtures are from 80’s maybe newer.

That fixture is not that old. They’re the ones we used to put in walk-in coolers.