ABOUT
WHAT IS WINDROCK?
Windrock Park includes 73,000 acres of off-road excitement with over 300 miles of trails to explore! Located in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, we are the LARGEST privately owned riding area in the country. Our famous trails accommodate all types of vehicles. The park also includes a full-service campground, shooting range, bike park, RC park and special events throughout the year. Come enjoy a family-oriented atmosphere and don’t forget to get a souvenir at the General Store before you go!
RENT A SxS
EXPLORE OUR TRAILS
VISIT OUR CAMPGROUND
Are you looking for a unique location for a special event? Windrock Park offers location assistance for commercial videos, photoshoots, weddings, corporate events and so much more.
OUR FAMOUS TRAILS
The trail system is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. All types of off-road vehicles are welcome.
73,000 acres of land with over 300 miles of trails…it’s time to play! What are the trails like, you ask?
EASY: Hit those gravel roads for a fun, scenic drive.
MODERATE: Some dirt, some rocks and some ruts make these trails a bit more exciting.
DIFFICULT: Step it up. It’s all the above and more dirt, more rocks and more ruts!
EXTREMELY DIFFICULT: You sure about this? Boulders and cliffs and questions…OH MY!
Finally! Online permits are available. Remember, annual permits are 365 days from date of purchase. Please remember that anyone under the age of 18 is required to wear a helmet to ride on Windrock Park’s Trail System. Everyone entering Windrock Park’s trail system must have a permit.
HISTORY OF WINDROCK
Windrock Park is 73,000 acres of off-road excitement located in Oliver Springs, TN. The trails accommodate all types of vehicles from ATVs, SxSs, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, Jeeps/4x4s, buggies and trucks. We are the LARGEST privately owned riding area in the country. Known for keeping the rider in mind, come see what everyone is talking about!
Henry Wiley and William McEwen form a partnership, and begin acquiring tracts of mountain land in Morgan, Anderson, and Campbell counties.
Wiley and McEwen complete the bulk of their land purchases.
Thomas Eastland sells Charles Bulkley forty-five thousand acres in East Tennessee. Some of this acreage is eventually found to overlap Wiley and McEwen’s property, though Eastland’s deeds predate theirs.
Bulkley files an ejectment suit against Wiley and McEwen over a five-thousand-acre tract on which the pair has been actively working. The federal court in Knoxville rules in favor of Bulkley.
The US Supreme Court hears Wiley and McEwen’s appeal, reverses the previous ruling, and sends the case back to a lower court to determine the tract’s true boundaries. The start of the Civil War delays further legal action.
A retrial at the federal court in Knoxville ends in a hung jury. Bulkley, McEwen, and Wiley sign a “Compromise Agreement” to consolidate the contested land and additional deeds shown to conflict-eight tracts in all, totaling over forty thousand acres – and form a land-leasing company.
The chancery court in Kingston authorizes Bulkley, McEwen, and Wiley to incorporate as The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company. Initially, the Company is based at Coal Creek, with McEwen as its first president.
Wiley replaces McEwen as president of the Company.
Jonathan Heck purchases a controlling interest in the Company and is elected as its new president.
William Geers replaces Heck as president of the Company.
The Poplar Creek Coal and Iron Company and the Winters Gap Coal and Land Company are organized. They own tens of thousands of acres in the mountains above Oliver Springs, just west of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company’s property.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company purchases a majority interest in the Oakdale Coal, Iron and Transportation Company.
Bulkley sells his majority shares in The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company to a wealthy syndicate made up of Charles M. McGhee, Samual Thomas, John Moore, Calvin Brice, Edward J. Sanford, and others. McGhee replaces Geers as president of the Company.
Elverton Chapman, on behalf of the same wealthy syndicate, buys out the Wiley family’s coal company stocks and acquires 51 percent control of Poplar Creek Coal and Iron. Chapman and associates sell the stocks and interest to The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company. Sanford replaces McGhee as president.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company acquires a half interest in the Winters Gap Coal and Land Company. McGhee, Sanford, Brice, Thomas, Moore, and other shareholders of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company charter the Lenoir City Company.
The Tennessee Coal Mining Company, a lessee of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, replaces its miners with convict laborers. In July, a miner rebellion ensues, prompting the deployment of militiamen to Coal Creek and the start of the Coal Creek War.
Anderson County sees its last armed conflicts on the Coal Creek War, though militiamen would occupy Coal Creek for another year.
An explosion in May at the Fraterville Mine kills 184 miners. As owner of the property, The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company is named as a defendant in subsequent wrongful death lawsuits, but ultimately cleared of liability. Grant Schley succeeds Sanford as president.
The Company moves its offices to the new Empire Building in Knoxville. The L&N Railroad contracts to bring its Cow Creek Branch line through Oliver Springs and into the shared coal lands of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company and an affiliate, the Poplar Creek Coal and Iron Company. The Wind Rock Coal and Coke Company leases acreage from these landowners, and opens a mine in the mountains above the terminus of L&N’s line.
Wind Rock Coal and Coke produces its first coal.
The Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land Company purchases Wind Rock Coal and Coke.
The Cross Mountain Main, on property of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company, explodes in December, killing eighty-four miners. For the first time, workers from the UT Bureau of Mines use cages canaries to detect toxic gas during a major mine rescue.
Michael Gavin replaces Grant Shley as president.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company fares better than many large firms during the Depression. Except for a small drop in 1932, coal production on the Company’s land increases over these seven years.
Forrest Andrews replaces Michael Gavin as president.
Coal production on the Company’s property surpasses one million tons for the first time.
Between October and November, forest fires across Tennessee burn over a million acres, including thirty-seven thousand acres of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company’s property.
Wind Rock Coal and Coke becomes the largest coal producer on the Company’s land.
Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land, the parent company on Wind Rock Coal and Coke, closes the Wind Rock Mine in June due to rising labor costs, with plans to reopen it as a non-union mine in November.
Bessemer Coal, Iron and Land sells the Wind Rock Coal and Coke Company and its assets to Kentucky operator Stamper Collins.
Stamper Collins sells the business and assets to the Lick Ridge Coal Company, which leases out the operation of Wind Rock Mine to the Oliver Springs Mining Company.
Frederick Hart replaces Forrest Andrews as president of The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company.
Lewis Howard Sr. replaces Frederick Hart as president.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company moves its offices to the United American Plaza Building in Knoxville. It purchases the remaining stock of the Winters Gap Coal and Land Company, a longtime affiliate. The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company’s total coal revenues surpass $1 million for the first time in history.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company purchases the remaining stock of another longtime affiliate, the Poplar Creek Coal and Iron Company. The acquisition increases the Company’s property to seventy-two thousand acres. Combined coal royalties from the Company’s lessees reach a high of over $2.5 million.
Wind Rock Mine, last operated by the Oliver Springs Mining Company, closes for good.
As coal revenues decline, timber sales become the Company’s primary source of income.
TVA begins operating three wind turbines on the Company’s Buffalo Mountain property. Eventually known as the Buffalo Mountain Wind Farm, the installation is the first power-generating wind farm in the Southeast.
The Coal Creek Mining and Manufacturing Company begins issuing land-use permits to allow off-highway vehicles (OHVs) to ride on its property, which becomes known as the Coal Creek OHV Area. The Windrock ATV Club takes charge of operating the facility, maintaining trails, and enforcing property rules.
The Company changes its name to The Coal Creek Company.
The Company annexes 259 acres of its property to Oliver Springs in order to connect its new campground area to municipal utilities.
Windrock Park, a new campground and lodging area, opens in May. The Coal Creek Company assumes responsibility for the OHV trails and facilities. Income from gas wells on the property peaks at almost $4.4 million.
Windrock Park General Store opens.
Windrock Hollow, a new outdoor concert and event venue, and Windrock Shooting Rang open on the property. Lewis Howard Jr. replaces Lewis Howard Sr. as president.
Windrock Bike Park opens in November. Coal mining ends on the Company’s property, and recreation becomes its primary source of income. The Coal Creek Company moves its corporate office to Mabry Hood Road in West Knoxville.
The Coal Creek Company increases its land holdings to seventy-three thousand acres.
The Company changes its name to Windrock Land Company.
Windrock Land Company celebrates its sesquicentennial.
This history outline is courtesy of:
Windrock Land Co. Established 1872 150 Years of Coal Fortune, Tragedy, Renewal, and Recreation in the Cumberland Mountains
By: Paul F. Brown