Hopkins County High Point Trip Report
Date: June 2003
Author: Ken Oeser
Jon Mann had made a previous recon trip, called the coal company number on a sign, and gotten the name
of the landowner where the highpoint is located on the topo. I called him last week, and he told me that the
highpoint had been stripmined away! I'm a doubter, so I looked at my DeLorme, and sure enough the whole
contour with the highpoint is gray, meaning it has been stripped away.
We pulled into the Southard Church cemetery one mile west of the 729 elevation while on our cohp trip,
and took a look at the mountains to the east. There is no knob sticking up anywhere along the whole ridge,
and tailing piles can be seen on the sides of parts of it. The whole ridge is now wooded, so even hiking into the
area with a hand level would be futile with no way to see other areas nearby. The topo shows several areas
above 650 feet in the Bunt Sisk Hills stripped area. Looking on Topozone and the DeLorme, many other
hills in Hopkins county have also been strip-mined.
This may truly be an undoable county, at least until new topos are released. My only hope is to visit the
library and see if there is something in the county above 700 feet that hasn't been stripped.