On an early spring morning in southern Kentucky, I set out to explore the remnants of the Cumberland Railroad. Chartered in 1902, the line was built by a Pennsylvania syndicate under the Cumberland Coal Company to serve the coal mines of Knox County. It extended 10.2 miles from Artemus to Wheeler, with a 2.7-mile branch to Anchor. In 1906, the struggling railroad was acquired by Southern Railway, which planned to extend it 34.4 miles to Jellico. However, financial troubles and legal battles with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) stalled the project, and by 1908, construction had come to a halt, leaving much of the proposed expansion incomplete.
Though the railroad initially thrived in coal transport, it struggled after World War I. Southern Railway allowed it to fall into bankruptcy, and James A. McDermott later revived it as the Artemus-Jellico Railroad, relying on secondhand locomotives and railbuses. The construction of parallel highways in the 1930s, coupled with the decline of coal mining, hastened its downfall. By 1952, freight operations had nearly ceased, leading to its formal abandonment. By March 1953, the railroad had been completely dismantled, leaving little evidence of its existence in Kentucky’s coal country.
One of the few surviving remnants is the Cumberland River bridge, repurposed as a county road. Even after 120 years, this narrow, one-lane structure without guardrails remains in use—a rare and enduring relic of the region’s railroad history.
Today, much of the old railbed has been reclaimed by nature, with only faint traces visible along its former route. Yet, for those who know where to look, the story of the Cumberland Railroad still lingers in the landscape, a quiet reminder of Kentucky’s coal and rail heritage.
Cool its neat that some of these places have survived.