Some local people seem to believe that this New River Company built the "coal monument" into the hillside. If this were true, it would be "interesting," especially when one considers the fact that the New River Company didn't own the coal in the hillside at the time the "monument" was erected.


A 1911 map of coal lands in Fayette County reveals that the mineral rights to this particular hillside was owned by the "McKell Heirs". The McKell Coal & Coke Company mined this section of Mt. Hope as part of its Siltix (also spelled Siltex) and North Kilsyth mining operations, from 1925 through 1939. The New River Co. acquired the mineral rights to the McKell coal lands in 1940, some eight years after the coal monuments were erected.