Area Names in early Campbell County

By Dallas Bogan

Reprinted with Permission from Dallas Bogan.  This article was published in the LaFollette Press.

Horse Creek

     Number 4 was one of the logging camps. Logging in such rugged country was certainly hard on the horses. Some were worked to death and some were injured and destroyed. The loggers dragged the dead horses down the road to the creek bank, where they were left to decay thus the name Horse Creek.

Hurricane Hollow

     Mr. Muse tells that in 1883 his grandmother sent his dad, at 8 years of age, and his sister Nancy, at age 6, about 5 miles back in the mountains for some unknown reason. As they were crossing the mountain, Mr. Muse's father said a black cloud hung on top of Walnut Mountain, which darkened the area so much, that they had difficulty in finding their way along the cattle trail. The wind suddenly became so violent that limbs fell all around them. Tying to outrun the storm was fruitless, overtaking and almost drowning them. 

     They dashed through the thick underbrush along the cattle trail until they were exhausted. Standing erect because of the fierce wind was almost impossible. After slow gain they finally reached the top of the mountain between the head of Horse Creek and Ollis Creek. The wind was much less severe on the East Side of the mountain than back in the hollow where the hurricane was still raging. 

     The two Muse children finally arrived home safely, out of breath, telling of the gloomy incident concerning the black cloud. It seems no one ever questioned the name, Hurricane Hollow.

Tar Kiln Mountain.

      A tar kiln was constructed by three men on a mountain at the head of Sawmill Hollow to render pine tar. Stones and clay from the mountain were used to build the kiln, which resembled a sorghum molasses furnace. The boiler had a capacity of 800 gallons, which was equivalent to a wagonload of pine knots. The locals, benefiting themselves with the bountiful supply of rich black pine, would deliver these knots in wagons, sleds and even burlap bags. The tar kiln operation started in about 1917 and continued for about 10 years.

     Operation of this process was that the pine knots were split and tossed into the boiler and boiled until the resin was released in the water. The residue was then skimmed and poured into lard cans and sold for making pine tar.

     Three good men could spend a day gathering and delivering a load of pine knots. Their wage for one day's work was about six or seven dollars, the pine knots bringing about one or two cents per knot. The gathering of these pine knots essentially stripped the mountain of pine, causing the three-man kiln to shut down. To this day the mountain is known as Tar Kiln.

(Many thanks to Ozias Muse for allowing me to use this material and preserving the local history.)