Harlan County: Pine Mountain Settlement School

Tonight's pictures were taken at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky (Bledsoe, Kentucky).  I wanted to highlight the Settlement School because I found the grounds to be beautiful and quite peaceful.  Before the days of Public School systems in Appalachia, settlement schools provided the only means of education for children in their respective areas.  Children would stay on the campuses (if local commuting was not accessible) and remain on campus.  Until the 1950's, the Pine Mountain Settlement School was the only school in the area.  For those that have not been to Harlan County, Harlan County is in Eastern Kentucky.  There is not a straight road to access it from the interstate and the area is very mountainous.  Random fact...Black Mountain, which is the highest point in Kentucky, is located in Harlan County (over 4,000 feet above sea level).  Even for us getting to Settlement School was an endeavor.  As we were going up Highway 421, my passenger car window fell out of the tract and almost fell out completely on me.  Let just say, it was a wonderful experience trying to keep it from not falling out completely while going up the mountain.  Back to the settlement school, the school focuses on environmental education.  While we was there, we got to speak with the President of Berea College who serves on the Board of Trustees of the School.  They had finished a meeting and were leaving.  He gave us history, interesting information about the school, and information about the landscape of the campus.  He said that the school focuses on environmental education because there are many rare species that live in the area.  According to him (and I am not sure if I agree with this view or that I will be able to quote exactly what he said), but the Pine Mountain Area is one of the oldest parts of the Eastern United States.  He said after Africa slammed into the Eastern Coast that it killed everything up to the Pine Mountain Area.  Therefore the things that are in the area are unique to that area (yeah, I may have butchered that one).

Well, anyways, below are the pictures that I took while on the campus.  There are more, but I wanted to share these pictures.  The first picture is of the entrance sign from the highway.  The second and third picture is of the chapel on campus.  The chapel was one of the most peaceful places that I have been in a long time.  Truly a gem hidden in a nestled in Appalachia.  My pictures really does not do the chapel any justice.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend that you take a second to walk inside of the chapel.  The fourth picture was taken using a silhouette setting in taking a picture of a bell at the chapel looking onto the campus.  We saw a similar picture taken in the 80's and the open field had cows in it.  The last picture is of the women's restroom.  I like this picture with the lighting in background and the placement of the chairs.

I probably have not done justice with presenting information about this school, but you can access more information about the school via the Pine Mountain Settlement School website (http://www.pinemountainsettlementschool.com/).