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From:
Subject: Re: [KYMCCREA] Yamacaw
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 18:21:57 EDT


In reference to the bridge at Yamacraw: The main bridge was built by the
Stearns Coal & Lumber Company for the K & T Railway (Kentucky/Tenessee), and was
owned by the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company. It was for railway only. People did
foot walk it.

This bridge is still standing to this day. There are no tracks on the bridge.
The only other bridge at Yamacraw to my knowledge is the Raised Ford Bridge,
meaning the bridge was raised up just above the water. That is the only name I
have ever heard it called. When we crossed the river, the expression was, 'we
forded the river.' This may be where the name came from. The bridge was built
by the CCC. The road to this bridge no longer exist. If the water was low
enough you forded right through the water. I was told by my mother that in the
winter sometimes the water would be so frozen that people with their wagons and
other vehicles of that time, actually were able to cross right across the ice.

The road from Hill Top (where I was born) down to the Yamacraw Raised Ford
Bridge, was also built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps). The Raised Ford
Bridge was down stream from the railway bridge by approximately 500 to 1000
feet, plus or minus.

At first the Raised Ford Bridge was the only way for traffic to cross over
the Big South Fork River to Walls Town; Comargo; Koger Hallow; Oz, later called
Paint Cliff; Co-op and Bell Farm. These are all mining communities. From Bell
Farm there was a wagon trail all the way to TN. I have walked it many times as
a teenager.

In the late thirties and early forties, the bridge that crossed over the Big
South Fork at Wolf Creek was built (KY Hwy. #92) to Monticello. This is the
only bridge that is traveled today.

Kenneth D. Jones
Born and raised at Hill Top, KY

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