Here is a coal miner poem from Beech Creek, KY
The Carbide Lamp
Carbide lamp upon his head
Miner Jim as soon be dead
As in the dark
Of a coal mine night
Without his trusty
carbide light.
Poet, unknown, but circa 1900-1930....freely substitue caver for miner and cave
for coal mine.
Merle Travis did not write the above poem, but he lived his teenage years near
Beech Creek. Merle later wrote the the song "Sixteen Tons" about the #9 coal
vein at the Beech Creek Coal Mine and the company store. You know the line, "I
owe my soul to the company store." Recently I found out that song was first
recorded on the day I was born.
Preston Forsythe, one mile from Beech Creek
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