MIDDLE SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY Part Five: Mining Miners in Dunlap in the 1920s PHOTO: Dunlap Coke Ovens Museum When you talk about Tennessee products, you need to include things mined. Five examples are coal, limestone, zinc, marble and clay (there are others, but we'll just talk about these five). Coal is black and rocky; it looks sort of like charcoal but is much heavier. When pure coal catches on fire it burns for a long time and gives off a lot of heat. Many years ago, most homes were heated with a coal furnace. In fact, if you live in an old house, you many find remnants of a pile of coal in your cellar. Today most homes in Tennessee are heated by electricity or natural gas. The Tennessee Valley Authority, however, still uses a lot of coal at some of its plants. In fact, TVA is the largest single user of coal in the U.S. According to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which regulates the mining industry, about 650 people still make their living as coal miners. They work in tunnel and surface mines located in four counties -- Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne and Scott. Today, perhaps the best place to learn about coal in the Volunteer State is the Dunlap Coke Ovens Park (click here for a tour.) Meanwhile there is a wonderful display of coal mining equipment and artifacts at the Campbell County Museum in LaFollette (no web site, but can be reached at 423-566-3581). The limestone processing operation at Crab Orchard If you stick a shovel in the ground in Tennessee you will more than likely run into lightly-colored rocks within a foot or so. Most of this rock is limestone, and among other things it is used to build buildings and pave roads. Today limestone is still heavily mined at about a dozen large mines (or quarries, as they are called) located in rural areas. If you have ridden in a car along Interstate 40, between Nashville and Knoxville, you've seen one of the largest limestone mines in the state -- the Crab Orchard mine in Cumberland County. Some of the old (Tennessee) limestone columns Here's a limestone story related to Tennessee history: Back when they built the Tennessee State Capitol in the 1850s, they used limestone mined near Nashville for the interior and exterior of the building. Unfortunately the exterior columns did not age well and eventually began falling apart, which required that they be replaced in the 1950s with limestone mined in Indiana. So the columns that surround the Tennessee State Capitol came from north of the Ohio River. (The old Tennessee columns can be found in several places; some of them are at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park nearby.) Who would've thought? This old bank lobby has a lot of marble in it. PHOTO: AmSouth Bank If you go into an old government building or a bank you may see a lot of marble -- a hard and smooth grade of limestone. Some of the best marble in the world comes from East Tennessee. In fact, most of the marble in the U.S. Capitol building came from Tennessee because the marble here is such good marble. Click here to be taken to the Hawkins County history page, where you'll learn more about marble. One of the larger marble mining companies in Tennessee is the Tennessee Marble Co. Click here to be taken to its web site, which contains a lot of photographs of marble.  Just about everything metal and gray contains zinc (an element that prevents rust). For example, the highway guardrail contains zinc. So do chain link fences. So does the body of your car. Tennessee is one of the leading states in America for zinc mining. You can find zinc mines in East Tennessee counties such as Knox and Jefferson, but the state's best known zinc mine is the Pasminco Mine in Smith County, near Carthage. According to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the Pasminco Mine consists of a network of tunnels that, if stretched out, would be 450 miles in length. By the way the Pasminco Mine had been dormant, but in January 2007 a company operating under the name Middle Tennessee Zinc bought it with plans to resume mining there. It is also well known because some of the land on top of the mine is owned by former Vice President Al Gore. Finally, Tennessee is also famous for its clay, which is used to make ceramics, rubber, sealant, kitty litter and many other things. The largest clay mine in Tennessee is the H.C. Spinks mine in Henry County. Click here to be taken to its web site. We've talked about crops, livestock, and rocks. What about things people make? Click here.