Appalachian Community Histories – Black Snake, Bell County: Census Maps, Coal Records, and Puckett Creek Memory
Black Snake is one of those Bell County places whose history is easier to find in scattered records than in a single written story. It appears on maps, in census geography, in school records, in mining reports, in court testimony, and in cemetery listings. The spelling also shifts. Federal geographic records usually identify the community as Black Snake, while maps, mining records, and postal records often preserve Blacksnake as one word for the branch, post office, or nearby mine location.
The place sits in eastern Bell County, Kentucky, in the Puckett Creek and Balkan quadrangle landscape near Tuggleville, Blackmont, Cardinal, Hulen, and the Harlan County line. GNIS-derived geographic data identifies Black Snake as a populated place in Bell County, places it on the Balkan USGS 7.5-minute quadrangle, and gives its elevation as about 1,115 feet. The same map-based records place Blacksnake Branch close by, making the community name and the stream name part of the same local geography.
This was not a town with a large municipal record trail. It was an unincorporated Appalachian community, the kind of place whose name lived through road use, creek names, schools, coal work, post office records, census boundaries, and families who knew where one hollow ended and another began.
Black Snake in the Census Record
The strongest federal evidence for Black Snake as a recognized place comes from census geography. The official 1950 Census search record identifies “Black Snake town, unincorporated” in Bell County and points to aerial-photo boundary material connected with it. That matters because it shows Black Snake was not only a local name. By the middle of the twentieth century, it was recognized in federal enumeration work as an unincorporated town.
The 1940 census enumeration district descriptions also show Black Snake divided across more than one district. One National Archives description for Bell County ED 7-13 lists “BLACK SNAKE (PART)” along with Cardinal and Feldor. Another description, ED 7-15, lists “BLACK SNAKE (PART)” with Balkan and Feldor. This suggests that Black Snake was not treated as a compact incorporated town, but as a community whose people and roads fit into a wider magisterial district and coal-field geography.
That kind of record is valuable for a small Appalachian place. It does not tell every family story, but it proves that the name belonged to a real community in federal records. It also helps explain why Black Snake can be hard to research. A person connected to the community might appear in records under Black Snake, Balkan, Hulen, Tuggleville, Cardinal, Blackmont, or simply Bell County.
Puckett Creek, Brownies Creek, and Early Local Geography
Older local history points toward Black Snake as part of the Puckett Creek world. Henry Harvey Fuson’s History of Bell County, Kentucky includes references to Black Snake Creek and Black Snake Branch in the older land and family landscape of the county. In one boundary-style passage, Fuson places Black Snake between Brownies Creek and Pucketts Creek, while another passage identifies William Bingham as living on Black Snake Branch of Pucketts Creek.
That detail is important because it places Black Snake before the later census and mining references. The name was not only attached to a coal camp or a map label. It was already part of how people described land, water, and settlement in the eastern part of Bell County.
A Kentucky Court of Appeals case from a 1928 killing also preserves the name in legal language. In Mink v. Commonwealth, the court described Gabe Ellis as living on Black Snake Creek, a tributary of Puckett’s Creek, in Bell County. The case itself belongs to the legal record, but for local history it also acts as geographic testimony. It confirms that Black Snake Creek was a known place-name tied to homes, roads, and families in that area by the late 1920s.
The Blacksnake Post Office and the Community Name
Robert M. Rennick’s Bell County post office research is one of the best leads for the Blacksnake spelling. His post office file for Bell County, preserved through Morehead State University ScholarWorks, connects the Blacksnake post office with William Nelse Taylor and places it in relation to Blacksnake Branch. Rennick’s work is especially useful because Kentucky post offices often preserve the names of small communities that never became incorporated towns.
The post office angle helps explain why the spelling matters. Black Snake is the form most often used for the community in modern geographic descriptions. Blacksnake appears in postal, stream, and mining contexts. Both should be searched when researching families, land, schools, cemeteries, and coal operations connected to the place.
School Records and Everyday Community Life
Black Snake also appears in Bell County school history. In a list of Bell County teachers for 1939 and 1940, Fuson’s school history names David Wilson with “Black Snake, Cubage.” The same section places Black Snake within the county school network rather than treating it as an isolated place outside local institutions.
That small reference says a great deal. A school listing is not dramatic, but it proves community life. It points to children, teachers, school districts, and the daily routes that tied families to Cubage, Balkan, Blackmont, Hulen, and the surrounding creek settlements. In mountain communities, the schoolhouse was often one of the clearest signs that a place had an identity of its own.
Coal Work Around Black Snake
Black Snake was also part of Bell County’s coal landscape. A Kentucky State Department of Mines annual report lists the Black Snake Coal Company with James Forester as general manager, Chad Howard as superintendent, Tom Barnett as mine foreman, and its main office at Hulen. The report describes the operation as a drift mine in Bell County, tied to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, using furnace ventilation and mule haulage, with a capacity of about 50 tons per day.
That description places Black Snake in the smaller-scale coal development of the Puckett Creek and Hulen area. It was not only near the larger names of the Bell and Harlan coalfields. It had its own mine name, its own company listing, and its own place in the state’s inspection record.
Mining records continued to preserve the name much later. The Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals annual report for 2000 lists a C.T.L. Coal Co. Inc. surface truck mine at Blacksnake, with an address at Hulen. The same report’s fatality table records Leroy Lawson at C.T.L. Coal Mine #2 in Bell County, Black Snake, Kentucky, after an accident involving a fall from a dozer.
The span between the early mine report and the 2000 state report shows how long the name remained useful in official coal-field records. Even when population shifted, schools consolidated, and older post offices disappeared, Black Snake and Blacksnake still meant something to state agencies, mine operators, local families, and mapmakers.
Cemeteries, Roads, and the Record That Remains
Cemetery and road records add another layer to the story. Cemetery listings connect Black Snake with places such as Ealy Cemetery and Hobbs Family Cemetery #1, while broader Bell County cemetery indexes place Black Snake among the county’s named cemetery communities. These records should be used carefully and checked against death certificates, obituaries, and cemetery books when possible, but they are useful guides for family and settlement research.
Bridge and road data also preserve the stream name. Modern bridge listings identify Rue Jackson Bridge Road over Black Snake Creek in Bell County. That is not a founding document, but it shows how the old creek name remained attached to the local road network.
Together, these records show the outline of a community that survived in the margins of official paperwork. Black Snake appears where people lived, crossed creeks, attended school, worked coal, received mail, buried family members, and were counted by the census.
Remembering Black Snake
The history of Black Snake is not built from one famous event. It is built from a pattern. The name appears in federal census geography, in USGS mapping, in county school history, in local family history, in state mine reports, in court records, and in cemetery indexes. Each record gives only part of the story, but together they show a real Bell County community rooted in the Puckett Creek and Balkan landscape.
For researchers, the most important lesson is to search both Black Snake and Blacksnake. Search nearby places too: Puckett Creek, Brownies Creek, Tuggleville, Balkan, Hulen, Cardinal, Feldor, Blackmont, and Cubage. The community’s record trail crosses all of them.
Black Snake may look small on a map, but its name carried through the systems that shaped Appalachian life in the twentieth century: creeks, schools, railroads, mines, post offices, roads, and family cemeteries. That is where many mountain communities remain most clearly visible.
Sources & Further Reading
United States Bureau of the Census. 1950 Census Search: Black Snake Town, Unincorporated, Bell County, Kentucky. National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Bell&page=1&state=KY
National Archives and Records Administration. “1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions, Kentucky, Bell County, ED 7-12, ED 7-13, ED 7-14.” Record Group 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives Identifier 5862276. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1940_Census_Enumeration_District_Descriptions_-_Kentucky_-_Bell_County_-_ED_7-12,_ED_7-13,_ED_7-14_-_NARA_-_5862276.jpg
National Archives and Records Administration. “1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions, Kentucky, Bell County, ED 7-15, ED 7-16, ED 7-17.” Record Group 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives Identifier 5862277. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1940_Census_Enumeration_District_Descriptions_-_Kentucky_-_Bell_County_-_ED_7-15,_ED_7-16,_ED_7-17_-_NARA_-_5862277.jpg
U.S. Geological Survey. “Black Snake, Kentucky.” Geographic Names Information System. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names
U.S. Geological Survey and MyTopo. “Black Snake, Bell County, Kentucky.” MyTopo Geo. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://geo.mytopo.com/feature/kentucky/bell/populated-place/487388/black-snake/
U.S. Geological Survey and MyTopo. “Balkan, Kentucky, 7.5 Minute Historic Topographic Map.” MyTopo Map Store. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://mapstore.mytopo.com/products/historic_7-5×7-5_balkan_kentucky
Rennick, Robert M. “Bell County: Place Names.” Kentucky County Histories Collection. Morehead State University ScholarWorks. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/kentucky_county_histories/
Rennick, Robert M. “The Post Offices of Bell County, Kentucky.” Kentucky County Histories Collection. Morehead State University ScholarWorks. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1382&context=kentucky_county_histories
Fuson, Henry Harvey. History of Bell County, Kentucky, Vol. 1. KYGenWeb transcription. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/bell/area/bell_history1.htm
Fuson, Henry Harvey. “History of Bell County Schools.” In History of Bell County, Kentucky, Vol. 1. KYGenWeb transcription. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/bell/books/History_Bell_1/Chapter_XIV_XV.htm
Fuson, Henry Harvey. History of Bell County, Kentucky, Vol. 2. KYGenWeb transcription. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://kygenweb.net/bell/books/History_Bell_2/
Kentucky Court of Appeals. Mink v. Commonwealth. CaseMine. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914a6c2add7b049346e0738
Kentucky State Department of Mines. Annual Report. Frankfort, KY: Kentucky State Department of Mines. Internet Archive. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://archive.org/stream/annualreport41deptgoog/annualreport41deptgoog_djvu.txt
Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals. Annual Report, 2000. Frankfort, KY: Kentucky Department of Mines and Minerals. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Mining/Mine-Safety/safety-inspections-and-licensing/Archived_Annual_Reports/2000%20Annual%20Report.pdf
Kentucky Historical Society. “Kentucky Cemetery Records Database.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://history.ky.gov/
LDSGenealogy. “Bell County, Kentucky Cemetery Records.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://ldsgenealogy.com/KY/Bell-County-Cemetery-Records.htm
Find a Grave. “Ealy Cemetery, Black Snake, Bell County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2577888/ealy-cemetery
Find a Grave. “Hobbs Family Cemetery #1, Black Snake, Bell County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.findagrave.com/
BridgeReports.com. “Bell County, Kentucky Bridges.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://bridgereports.com/ky/bell/
Bridgehunter.com. “Bell County, Kentucky Bridges.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://bridgehunter.com/ky/bell/
Kentucky Geological Survey. “Water Quality and Watershed Data for Kentucky.” University of Kentucky. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/
FamilySearch. “Bell County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Bell_County,_Kentucky_Genealogy
TopoQuest. “Balkan, Kentucky Quadrangle and Nearby Features.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://www.topoquest.com/
Mapcarta. “Black Snake, Bell County, Kentucky.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://mapcarta.com/
Bell County, Kentucky. “About Bell County.” Accessed May 26, 2026. https://bellcounty.ky.gov/Pages/about.aspx
Author Note: Black Snake is the kind of Bell County community that survives through many small records instead of one easy narrative. I wanted this piece to follow those traces carefully, from census maps and creek names to coal reports, schools, and cemeteries.