Kentucky Coal Museum

The Kentucky Coal Museum is open from 10am-5pm Tuesday through Saturday. Portal 31 tours run each hour from 11am-4pm, also Tuesday through Saturday.

The Kentucky Coal Museum and Portal 31 Exhibit Mine are your portal to coal education and adventure. Enter four levels of exhibits as you visit the old International Harvester Commissary at Benham, Kentucky.

Stroll along the rooms of furniture and fixtures representing home and business settings from the coal towns of the 1930s and 1940s. It is here you can the recreation of Loretta Lynn's Butcher Holler Front Porch, stage dresses and other memorabilia.

Next, visit Portal 31 Underground Tour where you will ride on a mantrip, a miner transport vehicle, through dark underground tunnels. Here, in the mining complex built by U.S. Steel you will trace the history and changing jobs of a culturally diverse workforce. The exciting story of coal mining beneath the Big Black Mountain is told by animatronic exhibits with historically accurate tools and equipment.

Wrap up this family-friendly tour with a visit to the L&N Train Station, Locomotive and Caboose nearby.