A Context of the Railroad Industry in Clark County and Statewide Kentucky
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MAY 4, 2016 A CONTEXT OF THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY IN CLARK COUNTY AND STATEWIDE KENTUCKY CLARK COUNTY, KENTUCKY TECHNICAL REPORT 15028 15011 SUBMITTED TO: City of Winchester 32 Wall Street PO Box 40 Winchester, Kentucky 40392 10320 Watterson Trail Louisville KY 40299 502-614-8828 A CONTEXT OF THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY IN CLARK COUNTY AND STATEWIDE KENTUCKY OSA Project No. FY15-8453 KHC Project No. FY16-2211 Submitted to: Mr. Matt Belcher City Manager 32 Wall Street PO Box 40 Winchester, Kentucky 40392 859-744-6292 LEAD AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Prepared By: Mathia N. Scherer, MA, Tim W. Sullivan, PhD, RPA, Kathryn N. McGrath, MA RPA, Anne Tobbe Bader, MA RPA, Sara Deurell, BA, and Michelle Massey, BA Corn Island Archaeology, LLC P.O. Box 991259 Louisville, Kentucky 40269 Phone (502) 614-8828 FAX (502) 614-8940 [email protected] Project No. PR15012 Cultural Resources Report No. TR15028 (Signature) Anne Bader Principal Investigator May 4, 2016 A Context of the Railroad Industry in Clark County and Statewide Kentucky ABSTRACT From April 2015 through April 2016 Corn Island Archaeology LLC researched and prepared a historic context for railroad and rail-related buildings, structures, objects, and archaeological resources in Kentucky with a particular focus on the City of Winchester and Clark County. Specifically, Corn Island prepared an inventory of known (recorded) railroad-related cultural resources within the proposed undertaking; assessed the potential for unrecorded railroad- related resources to be present in Clark County; and developed a historical context to allow informed interpretation of these resources as well as those that may be recorded in the future. The project was requested by the City of Winchester to address required mitigation by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in response to impacts that occurred to the archaeological remains (site 15CK565) of the Union Depot located in the city of Winchester. The depot was demolished in 1985. The buried archaeological remains (site 15CK565) were impacted during improvements to Depot Street by the City. The first step to understanding the railroad-related resources in both Clark County and the broader context of Kentucky was to review data provided by the KHC using key terms associated with the railroad industry and compare with the actual site forms. Approximately 1,100 resources were listed on the spreadsheet generated during the site file check, and 382 of these resources are definitely railroad-related and another 42 are possibly rail-related. The remaining 690 resources may or may not be associated with the railroads, and needs to be reviewed to create a complete listing of previously documented resources. A list of the approximately 424 resources known to be railroad-related resources was then examined. ii A Context of the Railroad Industry in Clark County and Statewide Kentucky CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................................. II CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................................ III FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................................. V TABLES .................................................................................................................................................................. IX INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 1 PROJECT STATEMENT OF WORK ................................................................................................................................ 8 FINDINGS ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 PROJECT STAFFING .................................................................................................................................................... 8 ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT .................................................................................................................................. 9 Jackson Purchase or Mississippi Embayment Physiographic Region .................................................................. 10 Western Coalfields Physiographic Region ........................................................................................................... 11 Mississippian Plateau Physiographic Region ...................................................................................................... 12 Knobs Physiographic Region ............................................................................................................................... 13 Bluegrass Physiographic Region ......................................................................................................................... 14 Cumberland Plateau or Eastern Coalfields Physiographic Region ...................................................................... 15 Rail-Dependent Resource Exploitation ................................................................................................................ 16 Tourism-related Rail Systems .............................................................................................................................. 25 METHODOLOGY AND BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 29 NATIONAL REGISTER ASSESSMENT OF RAILROAD RESOURCES ............................................................................... 29 National Register Criteria for Eligibility ............................................................................................................... 31 National Register Criteria for Integrity ............................................................................................................... 32 Categories of Eligibility for Railroad related Resources ...................................................................................... 33 Railroad Corridor Historic District ....................................................................................................................... 34 PROPERTY TYPES ASSOCIATED WITH RAILROADS ................................................................................................... 46 Roadway Structures ............................................................................................................................................ 47 Grade Separation Structures ............................................................................................................................... 48 Railroad Yard Structures ..................................................................................................................................... 61 Depots ................................................................................................................................................................. 63 RECORDED HISTORIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES .................................................................................. 80 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE DEFINITIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS ..................................................................................... 80 RECORDED RAILROAD RESOURCES STATEWIDE ...................................................................................................... 93 Railroad Lines ...................................................................................................................................................... 93 County-level Distributions ................................................................................................................................... 96 RECORDED HISTORIC RAILROAD RESOURCES IN CLARK COUNTY ............................................................................ 99 RECORDED ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES STATEWIDE ....................................................................................... 101 Recorded Railroad Archaeological Resources Statewide .................................................................................. 103 Recorded Archaeological Railroad Resources In Clark County .......................................................................... 112 Discussion .......................................................................................................................................................... 114 OTHER RAILROAD RELATED RESOURCES ............................................................................................................... 118 Railroad Beds .................................................................................................................................................... 118 Lakes and Reservoirs ......................................................................................................................................... 120 HISTORIC CONTEXT FOR RAILROADS.................................................................................................................. 122 iii