The Devil's Triangle ...Today

Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005

Member

Posts: 13846

American by Birth, Southern by the Grace of God.

Beautiful east Tennessee ( GOD'S Country )

The Devil's Triangle ...Today

« on: February 06, 2016, 04:09:25 PM »

Took off this afternoon with no place in mind to go just getting out on my bike on a solo ride. Decided I would go drag a peg across The Devils Triangle Hwy.116. This first picture was taken outside of Rocky Top , Tennessee . Actually Rocky Top is the third name this town has had in the last 100 plus years or so . The town was originally named Coal Creek when it was founded in the early 19th century, after the 1798 Treaty of Tellico opened the area to settlement, taking its name from the stream that runs through the town. Coal Creek and the nearby town of Briceville were the site of a major lockout of coal miners in 1891, which resulted in the town of Coal Creek being occupied by the state militia for over a year after miners attempted to force an end to the use of unpaid convict labor in the mines. This labor struggle, known as the Coal Creek War, was eventually resolved in the coal miners' favor with the abolition of Tennessee's convict labor program. Renamed Lake City ...The name "Lake City" was adopted in 1936 after the completion of nearby Norris Dam formed an artificial lake above the dam. Renamed Rocky Top...In 2013, a business group proposed to establish a theme park in the city if the city name was changed to "Rocky Top" to take advantage of the song of that name. On November 7, 2013, Lake City's city council voted to ask the Tennessee General Assembly to amend the city charter to adopt the proposed name. The House of Bryant, which owns the copyright to the song, as well as multiple trademarks and copyrights associated with it, has objected to the name change, asserting that it would violate intellectual property rights. On May 29, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan denied the House of Bryant's request for an preliminary injunction, holding that renaming the town was not likely to be deemed to be a use in commerce as required for trademark infringement.

The Fraterville Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion that occurred on May 19, 1902 near the community of Fraterville, in Tennessee. There were 216 miners who died as a result of the explosion, either from its initial blast or from the after-effects, making it the worst mining disaster in the state's history. The cause of the explosion, although never fully determined, was likely due to the build-up of methane gas which had leaked from an adjacent unventilated mine.
Shortly after the disaster, the bodies of 89 of the 216 miners killed in the explosion were buried in what became known as the Fraterville Miners' Circle at Leach Cemetery in the nearby town of Coal Creek (modern Rocky Top). In 2005, this circle was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896 in the aftermath of the Coal Creek War, an 1891 lockout of coal miners that took place in Coal Creek and Briceville, Tennessee, after miners protested the use of unpaid convict leasing in the mines. This labor conflict was eventually resolved in favor of the coal miners, with a bill passing the Tennessee state legislature to abolish the convict labor system, to be replaced by the Brushy Mountain Mine and Prison. The mountainous, secure site was located with the help of consulting geologists, and Brushy Mountain convicts built a railroad spur, worked the coal mines on site, operated coke ovens, or farmed. At the end of all the state's convict lease arrangements on January 1, 1896, some 210 of those prisoners became the first inmates of Brushy Mountain.....Notable inmates....In addition to James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., notable inmates included Byron Looper, who was convicted in 2000 for the murder of State Senator Tommy Burks and began serving his life sentence at Brushy Mountain. George Hyatte, one of the perpetrators of the 2005 Kingston, Tennessee courthouse shooting, was imprisoned at Brushy Mountain at the time of that incident.

Here's something you don't see everyday and its about 2 miles from my house. A small motorcycle repair shop recently open and had this parked outside today. From what I've seen driving by is they cater mostly to ATV and Zip-Splats.


	Logged

I've seen alot of people that thought they were cool , but then again Lord I've seen alot of fools.

Bighead

Member

Posts: 8654

Madison Alabama