Tazewell Tennessee Exploring: Beeler Mill Falls, Lonesome Valley Viaduct & Holt Cave Spring

 Liberty Hill Baptist Church in the snow.

Tazewell Tennessee Area Exploring--

 Beeler Mill Falls, Lonesome Valley Viaduct & Holt Cave Spring 

Dana & Kenny Koogler
Sunday December 27, 2020

Tazewell Area Pix

Beeler Mill Falls on Tennessee Landforms 

  Despite 2020 being a truly sucky year thanks to the corona virus and all the limitations it has caused, political and civil strife, and natural disasters, economic setbacks.... we had a really good Christmas.   We were all healthy and together as a family.  We have baby Mia Christina to love on and snuggle.  We had our new family room completed so we had room to spread out.   We had a white Christmas! Snow for Christmas for the first time in several years.   It was beautiful and peaceful.  We spent family time together enjoying one another and laughing.   The fireplace was cozy in the new family room.  It was beautiful.   

    Once we had Christmas behind us we could not wait to get out to do some outdoor stuff just us.   It was a damp cold day although sunny on the first Sunday after Christmas.  Poor Kenny spends so much time working outdoors we opted to do things that would not have us out in the cold for long periods of time. Instead we  went to see some neat places that had been on my list for awhile.   

  I had for sometime wanted to get up to the Tazewell area to check out some historical spots.   I just wanted to be in the country in the snow.  We headed up the road to Tazewell figuring we'd stop in town to get a quick bite to eat around lunch time.    I had never been to this part of East Tennessee in all the years I've lived here.  I had been to Claiborne county, but the Northern part of it.  I'd been down route 131 as far as Washburn to see some waterfalls stopping short of Rucker Falls which was one of the last ones on my list to see.  Haven't gotten there yet.

     We drove out through Luttrell and worked our way out through some beautiful country with lots of pretty snowy scenes of quaint houses, cabins, old stores, churches and school buildings.  It is remarkable how many old schools remain standing in this part of our state!  I did not get to take nearly as many photos as I'd liked to. We had to be careful because of the slick roads and limited places to pull over safely. 

      We stopped at one point in the Tater Valley area for Kenny to check directions. He was much more familiar with the area, but was trying to select the safest road in snow.   We pulled over by a stream that was a scene from a post card.  A small abandoned house sat across the road from this stream.  I thought what a nice place this must have been to live in the quiet and listen to the creek. 

Above: creek flows by the road in a snowy forest

below: abandoned house across from the stream

Below: the road turns here and winds through the woods and up a hill

Below is a short video of this tranquil stream
 

    We made our turn onto a country road that headed us in the direction of Liberty Hill and Beeler Mill Falls.   It was a pretty and certainly an interesting drive, but it was not the best road.  Even then it was safer than the other one.  We soon passed this cool looking building that turns out to be a former school.  I learned after posting the photos from the trip on Facebook from a buddy of Phil Sherrod's.... that this is the Lays Gap School!  It is in Liberty Hill, TN. 

above and below: Lays Gap School building.  The second and larger photo shows how the vestibule of the front is constructed. I've never seen one like this before.

Below: is a cabin in the snow I got a glimpse of as we drove past.  This trip drove me crazy wanting to photograph the neat old houses, stores, schools. I'd have had to make multiple trips to see them all.  

Above: another quaint old house that sits abandoned

Below: Liberty Hill Baptist Church is near Beeler Mill Falls

Beeler Mill Falls is in the Black Fox area near Norris Lake ,but we must have come in the wrong way or somehow missed the abandoned bridge at Black Fox.  The old Hogskin bridge sits beside the new, modern one that replaced it. 

Above: another old abandoned house just before Beeler Mill.

Above: Black Fox Road is treacherous in snow and icy weather.  The hill here prevents the road from getting much sun so it remains covered in ice longer than some areas.   We managed to make it to the bottom of the hill and find a place to pull over and go see the falls.  We had to be very cautious turning around, but we made it out of there.  

   Below: Beeler Mill Falls from the side.  Williams Creek had a grist mill on it long ago and the ruins are still here. 

  The bank near the falls and dam is steep and slick.  I walked on down the road further where the slope was more gradual.  I still had to just plow on into the snow and take my time.  It was up to my knees in places where it had drifted.  I wanted to make it to the base of the falls to get some good photos.

Beautiful snow scene at Beeler Mill Falls.  The sun was coming out and the skies turning blue.  The day was warming up and snow was still falling at times, but it was also melting and dripping out of the trees! 

     

Above: I stood looking down stream at the deep green cedars on the banks.  The elm trees lining the banks were coated in moss as well.  

Above: A closer look at Beeler Mill Falls in the snow.  It may not be the largest or most scenic falls, but it is pretty.  It was satisfying to finally make it here after I'd been seeing other folks photos of it for so long.   I was happy to be able to get some fresh air and sunshine. I was also tickled to get to take some pretty snow scene photos for Winter.   

Below is a video of Beeler Mill Falls wintry glamor.

        We went back through Tazewell before moving on to our next destination.  We had lunch at the Pizza Inn.  It was food. That's all I can say about it.  It was clean, the people were sweet and nice and quick on the service, but the pizza was meh.  We got finished and headed out toward Lonesome Valley.

      I had read from several people's captioned photos and trip reports.. most notably Jennifer Dawn McGinnis writings.    Lonesome Valley had a railroad trestle that used to be wooden. It was inadequately braced using wooden supports.

A train wreck occurred there in June 14 of 1892 when a heavy laden freight train tried to cross the high trestle.  I have found conflicting reports about how many died or were injured in that deadly crash.  One says four deaths, another said three died, two injured.  The newspaper article I was able to find said that Engineer J.T. Allison, and fireman James P. Shelton perished in the crash, while the remaining crew were injured, but survived.  

  Kenny and I both watch a t.v. show Engineering Catastrophes. He is keenly interested in that because of his line of work.   I started out not really caring about it, but I got hooked on it as well. The science behind some of the failures is fascinating.   At a site like this when we sat looking at the trestle and the gorge it spans we have the usual discussion about the failure and the consequences, fatalities, survivability, and the reconstructed, corrected structure.  I remember us that day saying the people who were in the front of the train... such as the engineer, fireman, brakeman, should have survived while anyone in the cars behind would have likely died in the plunge.  The first cars might make it across at least enough to allow the front persons to get out ok while the back cars fell down in the wreckage.    I read that the engineer and fireman, essentially the people in the front  died while others survived.  I knew there had to be more to this disaster than I was reading about.  

    Turns out that is true.   There were no fewer than three engines involved.  Train No. 17 was the main one.. laden with coal.  The grade just before the trestle was steep and long.  In order to make it up that grade Engine No. 10 and No. 9 along with two additional box cars were connected to No. 17 before they tried to pull it.  So the entire thing went like this. In front Engine 10, behind that Engine 9, two box cars, then Engine No. 17 and the rest of her........ loaded with coal.  They made the ascent up the grade, rounded a curve, and approached the trestle.  Back then the trestle was 800 feet long, 133 feet high five deck timber structure braced with timber supports.  As Engine No. 10 neared the south end of the trestle it dropped through pulling the other engines and cars down into the wreckage with it. It is worth mentioning that one article stated that the engineers and railroad personnel had been suspicious of the trestle for some time prior to the collapse. The trestle and the entire train was a total loss. 

Above is a very fuzzy black and white image of the collapse from the historic archives. 

        Rebuilding began almost immediately to what we have now as a steel and timber trestle known as the Lonesome Valley Viaduct.   It is far more sturdy and has held up much longer and better.  It is an imposing sight to see. The terrain here is rugged and desolate. Believe it or not during the rebuild the rail lines arranged to have two trains come to the breach and at these points passengers disembarked and were transferred by carriage from one train to another to continue their journey!

Below is a copy of the photos and article from the Claiborne Progress newspaper published in 1987.   Click the photo below to see it better in its original size or click this link here for a full size view of the entire article. 

Above: current day reconstructed Lonesome Valley Viaduct made of steel, timber, and concrete.  The photo cannot convey the height and scale of the massive trestle.

Another look at the trestle's north end.

Lonesome Valley Viaduct trestle .. the center portion

above and below.. beautiful blue skies on a Winter day and gray steel and rust of the train trestle

Below: south end of the trestle where it collapsed.  Looks pretty stout these days.

Below is an embedded map of the area via google maps satellite view

Above: I could not stop staring at this amazing engineering marvel.   We take a lot for granted in not appreciating fully all that engineers go through to help design and construct safe roads, train systems, and bridges to help us travel. 

Lonesome Valley Road as it passes beneath the trestle

Above: the evening sun is glowing through the trees down in Lonesome Valley near the trestle.   

 

   I have read about sounds and apparitions of a ghost train in the valley after the collapse.  Some say it is haunted.  I am a skeptic of such things. I am a scientist, but I always remind myself that just because I haven't seen something doesn't mean it cannot exist.   I personally believe one day that science will explain things we currently consider paranormal.   It is likely quantum physics will one day validate and explain various paranormal occurrences.  Perhaps events that are highly emotional leave some sort of imprint on time, space and matter where they took place.   A railroad disaster would certainly fall into that category of an emotionally charged event.  

         The days in Winter are short so we have to consider this and keep our adventures to a more reasonable length.   We only had one more spot I wanted to visit and it was just up the road a short distance.   We drove through a very rural setting in Lonesome Valley until we came to Holt Cave Spring along the right side of the road.  If you are interested in visiting it you can find it  by opening the map to Lonesome Valley Railroad trestle and if you google search it on the map it should come up.   Just in case the waypoints are 36.485214, -83.628405

   We found Holt Cave Spring without any trouble.  You can't miss it. 

There is a pull off at it and it is visited and spring water is available for use there.   I was unable to find much history on the area or the cave and spring.  I did see that the Lonesome Valley School was almost directly across the road from it by a stream that Holt Spring flows into.     After my visit I also found out that there are mill ruins buried in the weeds somewhere there close to the spring.  I'll have to go back sometime if I get a chance and investigate further.  It would be fun to go back when it is warm and go into the cave.  The grandkids would like to play in the water there and find crawdads and minnows.  

    

Holt Cave Spring shown above

Below: sparkling clear, cold water flows from the spring

Below: my favorite view of the spring and cave. The evening sun shining down into Lonesome Valley and warming it was really pretty and golden. 

    We were tired and cold and ready to head home.   Our daylight was drawing to a close.  We drove down the rest of Lonesome Valley Road to where it meets another road that headed us back out of the boonies and into civilization again.   It was a fun day of exploring. It is worth mentioning that the mountainside past Holt Cave Spring was dotted with several other spring boxes and springs flowing down the slope!  We did find one other spot where the creek emerged from the ground at a spring. It was not a cave entrance, but it was on the left heading out the road. 

Above: Kenny stands by the truck along Lonesome Valley Road. We're wrapping up our day and getting ready to head home.   I like this photo of the road going off into the distance through the snow.  Somehow it makes me think of the next trip and the next adventure to come!

   Below is a video of Holt Cave Spring.