Coal Miners’ Museum — Van Lear, Kentucky

The Coal Miners’ Museum in Van Lear, Kentucky, celebrates the coal mining heritage of the region that shaped many of country music’s most important artists. The museum is housed in the former Van Lear Coal Company commissary building, the same company town where Loretta Lynn’s father, Ted Webb, worked the mines.

Van Lear is the gateway to Butcher Hollow (locally pronounced “Butcher Holler”), where Loretta Lynn grew up and which she immortalised in “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Her younger sister Crystal Gayle was also born in the area. The museum connects the mining life to the music it produced — the poverty, danger, and community of the coal camps gave artists like Lynn a well of material that defined an entire era of country songwriting.