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Special to the Enterprise

Both history and mystery are coming to life this weekend in the historic coal camps of Lynch and Benham. The Appalachian Arts And Culture Organization, a grassroots arts promotion group based out of Harlan County, has teamed up with the cities of Lynch and Benham to help facilitate increased interest and tourism in their historic towns that were built on coal.

With the coal industry on the decline, towns like Lynch and Benham have to come up with creative ways to reinvent themselves, and both city officials and organizations like the Appalachian Arts And Culture Organization believe it is the history, as well as the folklore, of abandoned coal camps that will keep – ironically – their towns alive.

“I love the fact that Lynch still looks like a coal camp when you come through, but not run down,” said Lynch Mayor Justin Wren. “I hope we can really make Lynch a nice destination spot to camp and see our history, and maybe some of our ghosts! I really want Lynch to get a lot of attention. With the help of our community members, the county, and other groups, my goal is to put Lynch back on the map.”

On Friday, October 13, the Appalachian Arts And Culture Organization joins Lynch city leaders and others to present “In The Shadows Of Black Mountain,” a 90-minute, half-mile loop ghost tour that will take participants through the heart of the over 100-year-old former U.S. Steel coal camp where historic structures still stand today, like hardened stone and concrete sentinels keeping guard over the past. The ghost tour is free to the public, beginning at 6 p.m. at the world-famous Portal 31 Deep Mine Exhibition. Parking will be at the Lynch Depot, located just across the street.

On Saturday, October 14, some light will be shed on mysteries that some say still lurk in the coal fields in neighboring Benham at the Betty Howard Coal Miners Memorial Theater with a cryptids lecture. Fourteen speakers from Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia will take the spotlight in front of the vintage red curtains as they become the main attraction with their talks on such famous cryptids in folklore history as Bigfoot, the dog man, vampires and even aliens.

The lecture is free, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Benham Theater and concluding at 5 p.m. The city of Benham will be manning the vintage concessions stand with pulled pork, popcorn, drinks and other food for sale.

Benham Mayor Danny Quillen said the promotion of the historic theater helps his town with its plans to make a comeback.

“Every little bit helps since the mines shut down,” Quillen said. “We’re working really hard to market our town to tourists, and there’s a big interest. Our theater, which is named after one of our former mayors, Betty Howard, who worked really hard in getting the grants and other funding to see the theater restored, plays a big part in attracting people to Benham today. It’s a unique building, and it was restored to look much like it did during coal camp days. Not many coal camp structures are left, and we have the only coal camp theater in these parts that’s up and running and available for a variety of shows and events.”

The history of Lynch involves U.S. Steel beginning its coal mining operations there in 1917. At its height, 10,000 people lived in Lynch, including a diverse immigrant population from more than 30 countries. When it closed its doors in 1963, U.S. Steel’s Portal 31 had produced more than 120 million tons of coal.

Throughout the 1920s and well into the 1930s, the company and many Kentucky coal producers did everything possible to prevent unionization.

The battles between the coal companies and the coal miners earned Harlan County the name of “Bloody Harlan.” The ghost tour reenactors will share some infamous stories of those turbulent times.

Appalachian Arts And Culture president Jennifer McDaniels said what better way to learn of the area’s unique coal mining history and folklore than to walk the grounds of the former thriving coal camp and hear its stories from its people.

  “And to do it on Friday 13th should be a thrilling experience,” McDaniels said. “To be led on a ghost tour in the abandoned domain of what once was the largest coal camp in the world will be an unforgettable experience.

The organization’s secretary, Brenda Ellen Ramsey, said she became involved with the group because she worried about communities losing knowledge of their heritage.

“It’s important to keep our traditions alive because in the modern world, we are starting to forget our culture and folklore, and tradition is the foundation of Appalachian culture,” Ramsey said. “History is important to our cultural identity, and although our folklore is mostly comprised of a collection of oral histories such as ghost stories, they also play an important role in creating our narrative as who we are as Appalachians. We are storytellers, and we love our haint stories.”

While the Lynch ghost tour’s phantoms from the past players will mostly be comprised of local folks, professional storyteller Ron Murphy is coming from his home in Latrobe, Pa to take part.

Murphy, who got his start in historical acting with the Underground Railroad production in his hometown of Blairsville, Pa., said one of the reasons he was excited to be a part of the first year of the Lynch ghost tour is because he would have the opportunity to witness the coal fields that played a monumental role in the culture and work ethic of America.

Without these places like Lynch, Ky., we wouldn’t have what we have now as a nation, and all this history is almost forgotten now,” Murphy said. “It seems, now, that places like the coal camps are in our ancient past, while it’s not even been 100 years ago that these dwellings had life to them.”

Murphy will portray a phantom from the past that emerges from the Lynch Depot during the ghost tour to tell about the Vampire Of Big Stone Gap.

Other ghost tour stops and storytellers will include WTUK-FM Radio DJ Big Dan Tracy Turner of the Dinner Bell Roundup, who will greet the crowd at Portal 31 and tell of ghosts of the mines.

City of Lynch leaders and staff will greet tour participants at stop number two, the old fire station currently serving as city hall. There, they will talk about the phantoms of the halls.

At stop three, the bathhouse, David Saylor, will portray the ghost of Manzo Shepherd, who committed a heinous murder on Black Mountain.

At stop four, Devyn Creech will portray a 1930s postal worker who tells of the ghostly apparition known as The Woman In White. Debbie Daniels of the popular YouTube channel Ignited Coyote will appear as The Woman In White.

At stop five, Eric Creech portrays a 1930s storekeeper in front of the old Commissary and tells of John Garrison, who lived in a rock house on Black Mountain and was gunned down.

At stop six, Loyall Mayor Clark Bailey and former coal mining woman Anita Miller will share the legend of the Tommy Knockers in front of Portal 30. Cumberland Gap National Historical Park interpretive ranger and history professor Dr. Lucas Wilder will portray a company land surveyor at stop seven, which is the old load out and tipple.

Wilder’s character will tell of the strange lights and wild beasts he beheld in the darkened forest lands before the coal boom.

At stop eight, Alyssa Tippett and Olivia Creech will portray their separate versions of Harlan County’s most famous haunt, Headless Annie. The tour ends with Murphy’s Big Stone Gap vampire performance at the depot.

On Saturday in Benham, Murphy will continue his vampire lore with his lecture on the fabled creatures of the night at the theater starting at 2:45 p.m.

The Historic Benham Theater Cryptids Lecture will begin at 2 p.m. with event emcee Lloyd Davis, president of American Sasquatch of Sevierville, Te., presenting his talk on Bigfoot.

Matthew Delph, of Rose Hill, Va., who heads up the Mountain Empire Cryptid Research Organization, will talk about his research and covert military missions investigating aliens at 3:30 p.m.

Justin Decker, also from the Smoky Mountains who co-hosts The Paranormal Rabbit Hole podcast, will end the lecture with his talk on dog man at 4:15 p.m.

“People find cryptids fascinating because they are unexplained,” said Murphy. “And anything that the human mind can comprehend is a little bit frightening. In the scientific world, we have figured out almost everything, but it’s those shadows that creep in when the sun goes down and when we have to turn on an extra light in the house that we feel unnerved by.”

The public is invited to interact with the cryptid lecturers and purchase their merchandise at a meet-and-greet booth that will be set up for them at downtown Cumberland’s Possum Fest from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The crew will be joined by local ghost hunter Marcella Chadwick, who will have some items from her haunted collection on display. Chadwick, who has been investigating paranormal activity for over 30 years in Harlan County, will be leading a ghost hunt at the Benham Theater later Saturday night starting at 9 p.m.

Chadwick said the weekend in the Tri-Cities should be an excellent draw to historians and those who love to learn more about things that go bump in the night.

“I’m simply a history nerd with a nostalgic dream of finding irrefutable proof of what comes next,” Chadwick said. “And there’s a lot of people out there like me. That’s why this should be a big draw in the Tri-Cities this weekend, kicking everything off with the ghost walk on Friday 13th. Benham and  Lynch is filled with everything that makes a  paranormal investigator tick.”

For more information about Friday’s ghost walk or Saturday’s cryptids lecture, search on Facebook for Lynch Historic Ghost Tour and Benham Historic Theater cryptids lecture event pages.