If the Stearns area of McCreary County is not on your getaway list, maybe it should be. I know it wasn’t on mine in the beginning, but I decided to give it a shot and I’m really glad I did.

It starts with getting there. First, a good Kentucky map helps. Regardless of where you live, you can chart a route that keeps you on the four-lanes or, as I prefer, traveling the back roads. I love going through small places like Eighty-Eight and Summer Shade, and towns like Burkesville, Monticello, Somerset and Burnside. To me, this is really getting out and about.

Stearns and nearby Whitley City sit in southeastern Kentucky near the Tennessee border. They are surrounded by the southern portion of the Daniel Boone National Forest and the northern section of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

The country is beautifully rugged, as once were the people who worked there years ago. Today the area is placing much of its future in tourism. They indeed have something to see and do. The question I ask myself is, “What took me so long?”

In 1902, Justus Stearns, living in Michigan, bought 30,000 acres of timberland in this part of Kentucky. But soon after, coal was discovered on the property and the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co. was established.

The company built the town of Stearns to serve as the center of the mining and logging business that controlled some 200 square miles of land. The Stearns Co. also built the Kentucky-Tennessee Railroad and opened the first all-electric sawmill in the United States, all the while employing more than 2,200 people living and working in 18 coal and lumber camps.

In the 1950s, Stearns began to close several of its mines and the railroad discontinued passenger service. By 1976, the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co. had sold its mining operation to Blue Diamond Coal. The company’s vast land holdings were then transferred to the National Forest, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, and private ownership. The last coal mine closed in 1987.

The coal camps, like so many others, were closed, eventually leaving only the stories of the miners and their families, and the beauty of the natural surroundings behind.

It’s interesting that Justin Stearns built a nine-hole golf course, which is the second oldest course in Kentucky. Today it is the Stearns Country Club.

The featured attraction is the Big South Fork Scenic Railway, a 16-mile train ride through a thick forested gorge, with a creek on one side and a steep cliff on the other. The train’s powerful diesel engine pulls you up and pushes you back, and what is nice is that travelers can choose to sit in glass-enclosed cars or open-air cars, usually depending on the weather.

The train’s narrator gives a little history of what you are passing. The Barthell Coal Camp was particularly interesting. Although the train doesn’t stop there, it is well worth a visit on your own.

Barthell offers guided tours through the old company store, bath house, maintenance barn, where the old mining equipment was serviced, and even a 300-foot trip into Mine No. 1, the first Stearns mine, opened in 1902. A three-foot vein of coal is still visible and the short venture gives you a realistic feel of what miners went through in order to extract coal from a mountain in Kentucky.

At Barthell Coal Camp you can stay overnight in one of the 12 company houses restored with all of the comforts of home, except cable television. The restaurant on the grounds serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner, so you’re not going to go hungry.

On your train ride, you’ll also visit the coal camp of Blue Heron. This is where the train stops. After a self-guided tour of the coal tipple, and a listen to audio recordings of people who once lived here, you head back to Stearns.

When you visit the McCreary County area, I’ve got a few recommendations for you.

Make sure you do at least one meal at The Dairy Bar in Whitley City. It has the look of a ’50s diner, and it should. It’s been open since 1952 and serves really good eats.

Ask directions to Bobby Duncan’s General Store in Strunk. I promise you’ve never seen anything like it.

And by all means, pay a visit to Sweet Kreations. It’s located just off the lobby of the Big South Fork Railway Depot. This is a wonderful little shop.

For more information, contact the McCreary County Tourism Office at (888) 284-3718.

Get up, get out and get going!

— Gary P. West can be reached at west1488@bellsouth.net.