The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

The way we were

Clips from Mountain Eagle front pages over the past 50 years



 

 

May 29, 1958

The Whitesburg Municipal Swimming Pool will open Friday. The pool will be open from 1 to 7 p.m. daily this summer.

Efforts are underway in Whitesburg to organize a Chamber of Commerce to promote business activity in the city.

Whitesburg teen-agers are talking this week about the arrival of “something the teen-agers in this community have long awaited and needed” – a recreation club for high school students. Last Saturday 51 local young people attended the first of a series of dances to be held each Saturday afternoon at the Whitesburg gymnasium.

Members of Letcher Fiscal Court authorized the county school board last week to issue $545,000 in revenue bonds to finance construction of new high schools at Blackey and Fleming.

May 30, 1968

The Whitesburg Garden Club plans to make available several thousand top-quality litter bags for Letcher Countians this weekend. The bags are the result of cooperation between the Garden Club, the Millstone OEO Sewing Center and Letcher Manufacturing Co.

The Whitesburg Veterans of Foreign Wars will hold Memorial Day services at cemeteries through Letcher County on Sunday, June 2.

The first U.S. book to sell a million copies was John Fox’s Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, set in the small Letcher County settlement of Kingdom Come.

Pork sausage is 59 cents a pound this week at the A&P Food Store. Tomatoes are 29 cents a pound.

June 1, 1978

Federal aviation authorities are conducting an investigation at Lonesome Pine Airport, Wise, Va., this week into the cause of the loss of a propeller from a Navy aircraft flying over Letcher County last weekend. The Neon Fire Department discovered the propeller near the home of Daniel Quillen. No one was injured by the falling propeller.

Blue Diamond Coal Co. apparently has organized a new union at the Justus mines at Stearns, where member of the United Mine Workers have been on strike for 22 months. Blue Diamond last week informed UMW District 19 that the UMW “no longer represents a majority of the workers” at the company’s McCreary County mines.

Stolen coal mining equipment valued at about $5,000 was recovered this week on Kingscreek by Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Remus Gibson. Gibson said the items were taken from a new mine being opened on Big Cowan by Russell Martin.

State health officials report that a second case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has turned up in Kentucky, this one in Harlan County.

June 1, 1988 This issue of The Mountain Eagle could not be found.

June 3, 1998

An emotional group of about 100 parents and children begged members of the Letcher County Board of Education for nearly three hours to keep Campbell’s Branch Elementary School open. The board was holding a special meeting at the school to hear opinions on the future of the school, which has 79 pupils in grades on through six.

Letcher County’s unemployment rate dropped nearly a percent to 6 percent from March to April, according to figures released this week.

Jenkins High School senior Ryan Potter is the 100-meter state champion. He also posted the fifth-best time in the Class A 200- meter dash.

State Rep. Paul Mason and a delegation of Jenkins residents hope to meet with the Letcher County Industrial Development Authority next month to lobby its approval for the use of coal severance tax funds to construct a welcome center on new U.S. Highway 23 at Jenkins.

Leave a Reply