Kyrock asphalt

What was the little town called in Kyrock where they mined for asphalt? Any stories? Names of familes very intrested.

Any body

Intrested wrote:

What was the little town called in Kyrock where they mined for asphalt? Any stories? Names of familes very intrested.

There is a book about Kyrock but I don't know if you can still get one, but I did find this on Youtube that you may be interested in watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Wow that was really neat. I wish there was more. If you are any body else has info post it. This was a very neat part of Edmonson County history. something our young kids know nothing about. Any History teachers out there reading this maybe you should dig somethig up on this and teach it at school.

Kentucky Rock Asphalt Co. Now it's being mined by Reynolds Raw Materials. It's on the road between Kyrock and Nolin. I'm not sure of the name of the "town", I think it started with a "W" back in the day. However, now the city is considered Kyrock.

Kyrock gets it's name from the asphalt Kentucky Rock. Because when it was first mined that's what they called it. Kentucky is the ONLY place it was mined and it was even used to pave roads in Europe.

If you go to Nolin to their emergency spillway, you can see it oozing out of the rocks. In the summer it's bendable, in the winter it hardens up.

Aside from the history, the geology information on it is much more amazing. An entire class about Pennsylvanian fluvial valleys as well as the formation of hydrocarbons could be taught. The area in which it's oozing at Nolin Dam is a trough cross bed that shows a braided type river system comprised of glacial runoff AND it includes coal lenses on the opposite side. Indicating an oxygen deprived swampy system.

http://www.kspg.org/pdf/KSPGAAPG07FTday2.pdf
That is a paper given out to Kentucky State Professional Geologists as part of information for a trip. It was comprised by local geologists and it's very informative for anyone interested in learning the social history as well as the geologic history of Edmonson Co.

For anyone interested, the diagrams might be a little much. I'll explain them for you.

Figure 12 "Brownsville Paleovalley" Shows a cross section from Bowling Green to just north of Nolin. The diagram depicts a fluvial river valley just as wide comprised of meandering/braided glacial streams of Pennsylvanian time. That's where the sandstone came from. It's also where the coal and asphalt came from as those streams were also in a very swampy area. You can see the Pennsylvanian sandstone is sitting on the Glenn Dean Limestone of Missippian age.

Figure 13 is another cross section depicting the same thing, but it also includes the coal beds and the tar sands.

Woodside is the name of the old town. I knew it started with a W. There's a topo map that shows the town.

The very last figure is a strato cross section depicting the same thing as the other two. It's just presented differently.

Hope this helps.

And if you want to physically see the Pennsylvanian Sandstone sitting on Missippian limestone in person, just go to the boat ramp at the tail water. You'll see parallel to the river, a slab of limestone that's been weathered, and a large crack between the limestone and the sandstone that sits on top. That sandstone is called "dismal rock". But you can actually see the contact. You would be looking at about 300-350 million years of Earth history in just a few hundred feet of exposed rock.

You can still get the Kyrock Book, you can contact Becky Goad.

I am currently doing an archaeology project at Kyrock, KY. I would recommend if you'd like to learn more about old Kyrock, you located a copy of the Kyrock, Kentucky book published in 2010. The Kentucky Library at WKU has a few materials on Kyrock and have provided valuable data for my research. My articles on Kyrock won't be published until a future date, but I would like to see a display at the Kentucky Library on Kyrock, KY. Maybe we can rally and get them to put something together!:)

Kyrock Elemtary School has a display case full of articles about Kyrock Aspalt Co.

Intrested wrote:

What was the little town called in Kyrock where they mined for asphalt? Any stories? Names of familes very intrested.

Ask at the Ed. Co. Library

I grew up playing on those old rocks unearthed they left behind.......walking,,,,runnin g....riding dirtbikes on the dinky track trail.....lived in Kyrock's Doctor's house in woodside......found old railroad spikes as a kid on the dinky track......sat at the base of the ole water tower on water tank hill....hunted on water tank hill.....climbed water tank hill on a dirt bike.......best place in the world to grow up...use to swim in the pools of water after a good rain in the holes left behind by mining operations.

Rocks can be found that have oozing asphalt coming out of them in the area still........email me if I can answer any questions for anybody...brianandsuz@live.com

There is also an old quarry in the Asphalt community in Edmonson Co.