Why this park
Indian Mountain State Park covers 203 acres on the west side of Jellico, in the Elk Creek valley, with the Kentucky line along its northern edge. Despite its name, the park's page notes, it lies under Indian Mountain, not on top of it. Elk Creek splits it into east and west halves on the way north into Kentucky.
What makes the place worth drawing is land that was strip mined for coal and then abandoned. The park's lakes and ponds began as mine pits. Ballard Lake, the park says, is one of them, and along the Airplane Pond Trail at the south end, pools left by the mining lie beside ten hike-in campsites. The Tennessee Magazine reports that each of those sites stands on an old spoil pile. On the main lake, under Indian Mountain, the lakeside campsites face the sunset across the water.
The story
In 1878 the settlement at the state line was a post office called Smithburgh. James Hayden Siler's history of the town, written about 1938, says two railroads raced to reach it in 1882 and 1883 while mines opened in the Jellico Mountains nearby, and by August 1883 their coal was famous enough that the post office took its name. The Tennessee Encyclopedia says the Jellico coal field reached from Kentucky into Campbell, Anderson and Scott counties.
Jellico stayed a coal town on the line. Its miners struck for higher wages in April 1894, the encyclopedia says. In 1906 a railroad car loaded with dynamite exploded in the rail yard; the encyclopedia counts 9 dead and 500 left without homes, while Dallas Bogan's county history names eight dead.
The encyclopedia says nearly all of Tennessee's coal was still mined below the surface in 1940, and that in the 1950s diesel shovels spread strip mining through the coal fields. The Tennessee Magazine says the land that is now the park was surface mined in the 1940s and 1950s, until the coal ran out. In a 2005 column, Jellico's mayor wrote that the Saxton Coal Company strip mined the land the park now covers. The pits and spoil heaps were left as they lay, and a Campbell County tourism page from 2009 says the site became an eyesore and a danger to the town.
Reclaiming it was Jellico's idea. The Tennessee Magazine says the city took over the worked-out mine in 1960; the state's tourism department says the city acquired it in the late 1960s, paying with a federal grant for open space. Grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the state and its Wildlife Resources Agency helped pay for the work, which the park's page says reshaped the ground, made lakes of old pits and brought back plant cover. Tennessee had passed its first land reclamation act for strip mines only in 1967, the encyclopedia says.
In the summer of 1971, the county page says, the state's Department of Conservation took over the site and began to run it as a state park, the first project in Tennessee to turn abandoned strip pits into a camping park.
When to go, and what to wear
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 normals is at Newcomb, about 3 miles southwest. Spring brings migrating birds through, the park says, and April averages a high near 69°F and a low near 42°F, so wear a sweatshirt over a long-sleeve tee in the morning.
In summer the park rents pedal boats, kayaks and paddleboards. July averages a high near 86°F and a low near 64°F, and it is the wettest month, so pack a rain shell. Much of the park is open ground, including the disc golf course, so bring a hat, sunscreen and water. Ticks live in grass and brush and are most active from April through September, the CDC says; it advises walking in the middle of trails, using an EPA-registered repellent and checking yourself afterward.
October is the driest month, with highs near 70°F and lows near 44°F, and fall migrants pass through. A long-sleeve tee and a light jacket cover most days.
The Tennessee Magazine says the campsites stay open all year. January averages a high near 46°F and a low near 26°F, so dress in layers, with a windproof jacket, hat and gloves. The park sits in Elk Creek's floodplain, and in extreme floods, it says, it may shut and move campers out. After rain, wear boots that grip: the park rates the short River Gem Wetlands and Airplane Pond trails difficult, with pitches steeper than 20 percent.
Know before you go
- Towing a camper or trailer? The park says to come in by London Avenue and Dairy Avenue and to stay off Florence Avenue, which has a steep railroad crossing.
- The main campground has full hookups. The ten Rabbit Road sites are hike-in tent sites with no water or electricity.
- Personal canoes and kayaks, and boats with electric trolling motors, may use the lake. A black bass must be at least 15 inches long to keep.
- Day use runs from 8 in the morning until sunset. Burn only heat-treated firewood or wood that has fallen inside the park.
- Hours, fees and closures change, so check Indian Mountain State Park's page before you go.
Sources: Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Mining" (James E. Fickle), "Conservation" (Ann Toplovich), "Labor" (Joseph Y. Garrison and James B. Jones Jr.) and "Disasters" (Allen R. Coggins); James Hayden Siler, history of Jellico (unpublished manuscript, about 1938), via the Internet Archive; Trish Milburn, "From Scarred to Scenic," The Tennessee Magazine (February 2025); Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, "Indian Mountain State Park," tnvacation.com; Campbell County, Tennessee, tourism page (2009), via the Internet Archive; John Clifton, Mayor's Column, City of Jellico (November 18, 2005), via the Internet Archive; Dallas Bogan, "Disastrous 1906 Dynamite Explosion in Jellico Killed 8, Injured 200 More, Wrecked Downtown," LaFollette Press, via TNGenWeb; Mike Steely, "Indian Mountain State Park, Jellico worth a visit," The Knoxville Focus (March 5, 2018); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Preventing Tick Bites"; NOAA, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, Newcomb station; Wikipedia; Indian Mountain State Park, tnstateparks.com.
