Paul Archambault
Jim Brown

PDF: Cleveland Southern Railway Depot Registration Form

PDF: McNabb Mines Registration Form

SHAKERAG, Tenn. — More than 100 years ago, this sparse, densely forested Marion County community was alive with activity. Miners blasted the land, railroad cars wove through the hills and barges swollen with coal floated up and down the adjacent Tennessee River.

Not anymore. Forests have reclaimed these hills, and only small cabins dot the woods. Scattered stone is all that remains of this community’s colorful past.

“It’s all just collapsed; it’s all just rubble at this point,” said Jaime Trotter, historian with Alexander Archaeological Consultants, gesturing to a row of sandstone ovens once used to burn the roughly 1,000 tons of coal this facility processed in a year. All that remains of the ovens now are moss-covered facades grown over with trees.

But Ms. Trotter is hoping the mines — a window into this community’s history — soon may become a tourist draw. This site, the little-known 457-acre McNabb Mines in the Shakerag community, and the Cleveland Southern Railway Depot in Bradley County are about to be added to the local list of sites on the National Register of Historic Places, according to state officials.

McNabb Mines, nestled between Walden’s Ridge and the Tennessee River off River Canyon Road in Marion County, boasts the remains of a 1800s school, church, store and coke ovens. All of it is surrounded by the Prentice Cooper State Forest, said Jim Brown, executive director of the Tennessee River Gorge Trust, which paid for the archaeological work done in connection with the historic designation application.

“I’ve know about Shakerag since I was a forest ranger and worked for the state, and I’ve slowly watched it be vandalized and carried away and carted off,” Mr. Brown said. “The old structures — many of them are still there. The history is still there, and it needs to be preserved.”

In late January, the State Review Board met to examine seven of Tennessee’s newest proposed nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, including Shakerag. The state board meets three times a year, said Brian Beadles, with the Tennessee Historical Commission in Nashville, and that meeting generally is the litmus test for designation. From there the nominations were sent to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

“I’ve never known one to be turned down from this point in the process,” Mr. Beadles said.

The region’s history

On the Jan. 31 list for state review were Shakerag and the Cleveland Southern Railway Depot, along with Madison County’s James Coble Monument, Obion County’s Patterson Hotel, Robertson County’s Bell Witch Cave and Thomas Woodard Farm and Washington County’s Caroline Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad Station and Depot.

All but one were found to meet the criteria for designation, Mr. Beadles said.

“The Department of the Interior will make the final decision and let the state know,” he said.

He said that usually takes about 45 days from the time the state review is complete.

According to the National Park Service Web site, there are 1,914 National Historic Register sites in Tennessee. Hamilton County can claim 93 of those sites, or almost 5 percent, according to the National Register Information System, maintained by the National Park System. Marion County, where McNabb Mines are located, has 12 sites, and Bradley County has 18.

Paul Archambault, historic preservation planner for the Southeast Tennessee Development District, made the application for Cleveland’s 1910 Craftsman-style railway depot.

“It’s part of the past. It’s a sense of place,” he said, describing the depot’s central ticket office, which had a waiting room entrance on the north end for whites and a “colored” waiting room on the south side.

The Southeast Tennessee Human Resources Agency owns the depot, and its officials hope to use the designation to get a preservation grant that will pay 80 percent of what could be a $500,000 cost to restore the depot as the agency’s Cleveland bus transit station, according to Mr. Archambault.

“It will be part of Cleveland’s downtown revitalization plan,” he said. “It’s just a few steps from the Five Points Museum.”

Looking for lessons

Ms. Trotter said one benefit of getting the McNabb Mines site on the historical registry is that it will be easier to repair and maintain. The site could be protected by signs and penalties for vandalism, she said.

“One of the problems is it’s right beside the road,” said Lawrence Alexander, president of Alexander Archaeological Consultants. “If someone wants to get some rocks, they just take them.”

Opened before the Civil War, McNabb Mines’ then-owner began mining coal to supply steamboats “when the Indians were still on the south side of the Tennessee River,” according to Ms. Trotter’s designation application.

After the war, the site grew to a company town in the Cumberland Plateau coal mining industry. An elaborate system of railroad beds, roads, waterways, worker housing, commercial and social establishments, industrial buildings, coke ovens and mine entrances made up the community.

But hard times led to the mines’ decline, and McNabb was abandoned sometime in the early 20th century, according to research by Alexander Archaeological Consultants. Now, all that remains are the foundations and facades of a handful of structures, worn down by exposure and vandalism. That they still are standing speaks to the craftsmanship of the buildings, all hand-cut from the sandstone in the hills, Ms. Trotter said.

At one building, the mine’s church, two of the four walls are gone. Inside, gnarled trees reach to the sky. The arched doorway, held together by just two stones, looks ready to collapse.

“After over 100 years of being abandoned and neglected, the trees have come back — obviously leaving their mark on the buildings,” Ms. Trotter said.

She and Mr. Alexander also are hoping that a listing on the historical register will make it easier to research the site further.

Although the archaeology company has spent two years studying the mine, spotty documentary records and the deterioration of the buildings have left many questions unanswered.

High along the hill, a tall structure covered in fallen trees has researchers stumped.

“Given its size and placement, it could have been a superintendent’s house, or some kind of office building,” Mr. Alexander said.

“It’s hard to say, because we don’t have the documentary evidence,” Ms. Trotter said.

But they are hopeful that others will follow in their footsteps.

“This is the beginning,” Ms. Trotter said. “Hopefully future researchers, if they want to, can take it up and add to the record. There’s still a lot of mysteries.”