This Saturday, Memorial Day Weekend, at the Good Old Days Museum in Soddy Daisy, the emphasis is on local coal mining. The museum is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
This is what made this entire area into towns. Companies purchased large tracts of land and found large quantities of coal. Where these mines were opened people came from around the world to mine this coal. These emigrants came for a better life to Soddy, Daisy, Bakewell, and Sale Creek. Stores, churches and other types of industry followed the people and towns sprang up with these towns, though some small, still exist today.
Did you know at one time the Soddy area had the largest rural school district south of the Ohio River? This was all due to the mining of coal in the area.
Officials said, "On Saturday we will be at the museum to discuss our coal mining history. In doing so, we will have refreshments for the visitors as they view the museum. We do have a large display of local coal mining artifacts and we would be glad to discuss how these items were used.
"Coal mining history is not all that we have. We have a display of almost photos of 100 men and women who were in World War II. Out of these 100 photos there is only one man still living whose photo we have on display.
"We encourage anyone with local photos to bring the photos with them. Bring old scrap books – these are always great sources of information. Someone brought a scrap book last Saturday of local World War II photos and stories, it has been a great source to further increase our knowledge of people that were in that war."