Miners museum opens expanded second floor
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People associated with the Coal Creek Miners Museum gather at the facility on South Main Street in Rocky Top on Saturday morning, July 4, to cut a ribbon celebrating the opening of a new second floor of exhibits and a genealogy research center at the museum. From left are Tyler Berlin, Tianna Edmonds, Director Lori Stapf, Tim Isbel, Lonnie Dison, Andy Harness, Nathan Dison, Jim Murdoch, Don R. Harness and Gordon Cox. - G. Chambers Williams III
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Visitors to the Coal Creek Miners Museum on Saturday morning for the unveiling of the next phase of the Memorial Brick Walkway look over the names on some of the bricks, which represent miners and family members involved in the history of the mining industry in the Coal Creek area. - G. Chambers Williams III
The Coal Creek Miners Museum in downtown Rocky Top held a ceremony on the morning of July 4 morning to mark the opening of its new second-floor exhibit space and genealogy research center.
Museum board member Lonnie Dison cut the ribbon to mark the occasion, with Anderson County Commissioner Tim Isbel, who is chairman of the museum board, looking on, in front of the museum at 201 S. Main St.
This event also marked the next phase of the Memorial Brick Walkway in the sidewalk in front of the museum, honoring the miners, families and friends who built the community, which originally was called Coal Creek.
Among the featured exhibits in the new second floor space at the museum are a mock Coal Company Store, Company House, and Briceville Opera House.
Museum Director Lori Staph said the museum’s Genealogy Center will feature genealogist Robert Griffin, who will be on hand five days a week to help people research their family histories.
The museum, including the Genealogy Center, is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday, she said, but Griffin will not be present on Wednesdays.
The museum unveiled the first phase of the brick walkway with a ribbon-cutting on July 4, 2024, with a second phase celebrated on Aug. 2, 2025. The walkway is part of a fundraising campaign for the museum.
It’s made up of commemorative bricks bought by donors, with most of the bricks engraved with the names of former Coal Creek-area miners and family members.
They have been designed with one theme in mind: memorializing those who lost their lives in two major mining disasters in the area in the early 1900s.
In October 2023, the museum began selling the bricks to donors to raise money for the additions and improvements to the facility.
The museum said it aimed “to raise funds through the sale of personalized bricks that will be used to construct a commemorative pathway at the museum,” according to a flyer explaining the campaign.
In December 2023, the museum was awarded a $50,000 grant from the state of Tennessee to help with the second-floor expansion.
The money from the state, awarded through a program of the Tennessee State Museum, has allowed the museum to add heating and air conditioning, along with ADA-compliant restrooms, to the second floor, according to an announcement by the state museum.
The HVAC and an ADA-compliant restroom “are very important components in the remodeling project that will expand capacity, allowing us to display a more-extensive collection of artifacts and exhibits. This, in turn, enables us to offer a more comprehensive and immersive experience for visitors,” the museum said in a statement.
Located in a former bank building next to City Hall in downtown Rocky Top, the museum is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of coal mining in the Coal Creek area, with emphasis on the industry’s impact on the region, and the tragedies that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of miners.
The new second floor of the museum chronicles the local coal industry from the 1940s until its end in the early 2000s.
