Dishing the dirt... on coal in Guernsey County

You will be hard-pressed to gain a better understanding of the life of a coal miner than a 10-mile trek along the rails winding south and west through Guernsey County along the Byesville Scenic Railway (see right, click to enlarge). Just two miles south of the I-70 and I-77 interchange, Byesville is a stop along the Marietta & Pennsylvania Railroad and later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O).

It is the combination of Ohio's earthen riches (coal) and transportation routes that make Guernsey County significant to history. Zane's Trace, a government funded trail in the late 1790s, was constructed to open up the lands of Ohio and Kentucky to the east, passed directly through the county. Zane's Trace became the National Road, and eventually U.S. 40, and further developed as an interstate (I-70) in the 1960s through the Eisenhower Interstate System. Just as the interstate system bisects the county, so do the rail lines moving significant amounts of cargo through Ohio to the Great Lakes and beyond.

The Byesville Scenic Railroad (BSR) offers a casual (about 12 mph) trip along the Marietta & Pittsburgh and B&O lines, beginning in its namesake, Byesville (see right, click to enlarge). The town's growth a hundred years ago was due to the high volume of coal workers in the area descending upon the city. Following the Civil War, coal mining became a huge endeavor in and around Byseville with dozens of mines being operated (see full history of Guernsey County). The city was incorporated in 1882 with a mere 300 people and today stands at 2,500 according to 2000 census totals. Between its incorporation and the height of the coal era, over 12,000 people (mostly coal miners in the region) are said to have visited town for shopping and entertainment.

The newly built station in Byesville (see left, click to enlarge) is the starting (and concluding) point for the rail excursion. Still being finished in the summer of 2010 were what appeared to be permanent offices, restrooms and souvenir shop. Here, passengers climb aboard one of several old rail cars, some originally built in 1918, nestled behind the purple and black diesel locomotive replete with logos of the BSR. Recently flooding severely damaged rails along the route, but despite this the BSR, certainly not immune to the modern economic difficulties of non-profit organizations, rebuilt the sections and operates normal tours and special excursions.

The cars (see left, click to enlarge) are spacious with ceilings that would be high for even modern luxurious homes. The windows, although aged, open and hold at different heights. It is recommended that passengers refrain from sticking anything out the window as the windows are heavy and dislodging from the set height could seriously hurt an appendage -- not to mention at several points objects along the railbed are very close (bridge trestles) or brush the cars (shrubs and branches). Looking at the details of the near century old passenger car one can find details of craftmanship that are noted on hinges, fasteners and latches (see right, click to enlarge).

The southern five mile route is a leisurely roll through gentle countryside but also economic hard times. From the windows can be seen sweeping hills, open wetlands and struggling local areas in another part of Ohio hard hit after industry has moved on. Through a wireless microphone and a speaker swaying dizzily from a mount on the car's ceiling mid-train, a narrator talks of the railroad, the landscape, the people of the area and a little about coal mining.

Some of the wetlands passed are more recent, as mother nature is reclaiming abandoned coal mines as collapsing roofs and mineshafts lead to natural flooding of the freshly created lowlands.

The area and people have seen tough times, and is evidenced by some of the sites seen outside the car's window. A few makeshift memorials are passed along the way for those who gave their lives in the grueling and dangerous occupation of coal mining (see left, click to enlarge). There is a movement by the BSR to construct a permanent memorial in Byesville that tributes coal miners.

Along the way the narrator jokes about the "local airport", where at one of the homes passed an old plane fuselage sits at the rear of the property either in storage or awaiting restoration. Another property showcases what looks like a 1950s gas station, with vintage pumps, building and signage -- and even the frame of an appropriate era car (see right, click to enlarge).

The train settles to a stop (see left, click to enlarge) about 8 miles from another Ohio tourist destination, The Wilds (web, previous blog entry). The wildlife preserve, operated by the Columbus Zoo, is located in Cumberland, Ohio and future plans (already under way) are to connect the BSR with the Wilds to give tourists a chance for a train ride on their visit to the preserve. The seats are here reversed in the cars (to keep a forward view of the activities) and the narrator undertakes a transformation.

The return trip, giving the tourist an alternative from much of the same vistas just encountered out the window, is an entirely different experience. The narrator applies some make-shift make-up to take on the look of a coal miner complete with tools (see left, click to enlarge). He enters into more of a first-person role and the following hour is time well spent back in history and deep underground. A little Johnny Cash provides the soundtrack at the beginning of Act II (as it were), as the strains of "owe my soul to the company store" (from Sixteen Tons, an often recorded folk song) set the tone for this trip back in time and back to Byseville.

Such personal interaction with the working conditions that were harsh (coal dust, trapped gases, flooding, etc.) to treatment that was less than ideal (payment of 10 cents a ton) and work that wasn't always constant (see right, click to enlarge) provides a stark contrast to the serene first half of the excursion. One learns of how the company store owned the worker, where payment (done in scrip) was redeemed only at that store and even homes were built on future scrip credit. All of the miners working tools, clothes, lunch pail, etc. were bought from his own pocket... and at the company store. As the narrator implies, it was essentially a form of slavery or indentured servitude.

It is a wonderful ride back in time, and the entire return trip feels like an authentic journey to a place a century ago where workers toiled long and hard, prying from thin and long veins in the earth the raw materials that would propel America into post-war Prosperity. Often overlooked is that many a men chose a different wartime path of patriotism by going into the mines to provide the literal fuel that would fire a nation's industry in wartime. The planned memorial seems all the more fitting upon arrival back in Byesville.

It's another of Ohio's intriguing place in history that can be found just minutes off the highway, along roads travelled hundreds of years by countless individuals.

- J.