Skip to main content

Coal, Gas, and Petroleum

Introduction

The present and future of the energy industry is an issue which motivates Kentucky policymakers, business leaders, and citizens across the commonwealth. Yet with so much focus on where the state and the nation are headed, it is important for historians to provide a better understanding of Kentucky's long relationship with energy production. Most histories of coal mining begin in the latter decades of the 1800s and tend to focus on coal mining in Eastern Kentucky. Civil War Governors documents, however, suggest an older and more geographically diverse story. The document excerpts on this page suggest some of the ways that Civil War Governors could be used for new historical research which can inform contemporary decision making.