Is it legal to collect at Bells Mines antebellum coal town?

Restricted. The site is in the Big Rivers Wildlife Management Area and State Forest, public land acquired with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the US Forest Service; artifact collecting needs agency approval and ARPA applies to the federal share.

What can you find at Bells Mines antebellum coal town?

Large cents, Seated silver, Civil War bullets and buttons, horse tack, mining tools, cut nails, stoneware, bottles

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Kentucky

Bells Mines antebellum coal town

Ghost town Documented siteRestricted

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What you could find

Reported finds from this ground.

Coins and tokens

Buttons and buckles

Nails and fittings

Also reported: Large cents, horse tack, mining tools, stoneware, bottles.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service, Amy Downes, (CC BY-SA 2.0), Unknown (Public domain), North Lincolnshire Museum, Martin Foreman, (CC BY 2.0).

Why this spot

early 1800s to 1950s coal mining village

A farming and coal village named for mines owned by John Bell, House Speaker and 1860 presidential candidate, and the site of a July 1864 skirmish between Union mounted infantry and about 300 guerrillas. Alcoa bought most of the land in the 1950s and residents left.View source →