Hazard unveils coal miner memorial honoring more than 400 names

A new Coal Miner Memorial in downtown Hazard now stands as a permanent roll call of loss, with more than 400 names of miners who died while working the coalfields carved into a public space at Triangle Park. The memorial was dedicated at the Farmer’s Market Pavilion on Wednesday, April 15, then formally recognized with a ribbon-cutting as local officials and the Hazard-Perry County Tourism Board gathered with community residents to honor the men whose labor helped shape Perry County.

The sculpture sits in Triangle Park and is surrounded by coal, a deliberate choice that ties the monument to the industry it commemorates. For families in Perry County, the memorial does not read like a decorative addition to downtown. It is a visible reminder that the county’s history, and many of its family stories, were built around mining, injury and death as much as production and pride.

Terry Feltner, director of Hazard-Perry County Tourism, said the project had been a long time coming and stressed that coal’s role in local life cannot be separated from the county’s survival and development. He said many families in the area have lost loved ones in the mines, and he described the memorial as a tribute to the workers who helped build the community’s foundation.

Mayor Donald Mobelini praised the tourism board for pushing the effort forward and called the memorial one of the prettiest monuments in Eastern Kentucky. He encouraged people to see it at night, when the lighting gives the memorial a stronger visual impact in the center of town. Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander said coal mined from Appalachia helped power America’s rise, calling the memorial a reminder of the past for the future.

The new installation also fits into how Hazard presents itself publicly. The tourism board’s events page includes the Black Gold Festival, and the county continues to market its history, attractions and community events as part of its civic identity. In that setting, the memorial becomes more than a tribute to the dead. It is part of a broader effort to place coal heritage in plain view for residents and visitors passing through downtown Hazard.

That visibility also reflects a deeper reality in Perry County. State mining resources still include the county among active coalfield areas, and Kentucky’s oral-history collections include Perry County in coal-mining interview archives. The memorial now joins that record, turning names once tied to work underground into a public statement in the heart of Hazard.