1938 Death Plunge- Elkhorn City (Breaks) Kentucky

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hello everyone how you guys doing today Leo here with the hillbilly files Welcome to our latest episode I'm down here I wanted to kind of bring you guys up to speed on where we're at and what we're doing we have a a very interesting and very Infamous location for you guys today you know how some of our stories are you know well Legends and locations right so it could be an old Legend you know just about anything I am just outside we are just outside of elorn City uh Kentucky and um we're at a little place just called it's called pool point is right up there I don't know how well y'all can see this we started to shoot from up there but from up there you can't see anything for the leaves you know on the trees but I figured from down here you might get a a little bit better a better idea of what we're talking about anyway now if you'll look you can see right there where the tree line right where you can see through the trees just a little bit of daylight I mean it's a spectacularly beautiful beautiful place a lot of rafting a lot of fishing you can see where people been fishing here a lot of people I'm sure have had a wonderful day right here now this is also the access point to get to a little place called pool point right there around the bin that's that where that mountain comes out that's pull point right there now there's also a really famous you know it's a swimming hole uh right there just around the bend this is how you get to it right here uh you know you kind of come in take a little raft or inner tube or whatever and go down there and swim people jump off the bridge I've seen a lot of people you know there's a train bridge goes across the [Music] river might do a countdown for him he's nervous [Music] be careful man need him medicor pull you need him Med tomorrow I don't think he got the ball to do got it got it oh no he go oh oh that burn him a little bit River and I've seen a lot of people you know jumping off the bridge into the water but uh the story we had to tell you about is one involving that Hillside up there and that road that goes around right up through there it comes around up this way and then hooks really sharp and goes around that point and back up the other way right into elorn City now before we go on I have a hypothetical situation for you guys now I'm going to have to have you have to ask you to use your imagination on this one just a little bit okay now imagine it is just after midnight on a spil a chilly spring night you're driving along on a dark Mountain Road you and a few of your friends talking maybe laughing or listening to the radio there's no lights on except for the headlights of the car you're in unless you're the driver you have zero control over what happens next now imagine your fun night out suddenly turns into something straight out of your worst nightmares all of a sudden the car veers off the road hits a tree and you find yourself falling off of a 300t cliff this can't be happening in it it takes about 4 and 1/2 seconds to fall that far so you can tell that your vehicle isn't touching the ground anymore gravity itself seems to abandon you as on the way down as the disorientation sets in and I would imagine that it's a lot like one of those dreams have you ever had those that dream where you're falling and just all of a sudden you know somehow you just startle yourself and you startle yourself awake well this is kind of like that but unfortunately this time it's not a dream and after a few seconds well after a few seconds it's over you've plunged 300 ft and landed on a rocky Bank down here by the river the car it lands half submerged in the water demolished this hypothetical scenario really happened to form in on April 1st in 1938 almost 100 years ago now the crash was so loud that a nearby farmer claimed to have heard it but didn't know what it was two of the men's watches stopped precisely at 12:30 a.m. no one had seat belts on because it's 1938 and realistically speaking it wouldn't have helped if they did you know even if they did have seat belts on a fall like that I I did the math on this it's about 4 and 1/2 seconds so that's basically one 2 3 4 and a half so you got all of that time to realize what's going on and I'm sure like I said there's a lot of people who've had wonderful memories here and caught spectacular fish and and got married for all I know and all sorts of wonderful things that have happened here but there is a darker side too you know there's a much darker side here as well so this little area right here is where a lot of people swim I mean you can see why it's got a nice little Sandy embankment um it's got picnic tables up here a little bit and it's very inviting but the problem is it's got a really strong current out there right here they actually do white river rafting in this area so like a lot of things in nature it's beautiful but it's also dangerous so here's the newspaper article I'm going to read you four die and 300t plunge automobile with victim's bodies was submerged in River Pike County News Pike County where 24 persons Met Death in automo mishaps during 1937 suffered her first fatal motor accident of 1938 early Friday morning when four men rode to their desks and the only vehicle figuring in the initial tragedy of the year the four were killed instantly as the automobile in which they were riding crashed over at a spot known as pool point in the breakes of Big Sandy 3 Mi above elorn City and dropped 300 feet to a rocky bed of the stream partly submerging the car and badly mangling the bodies of the victims the dead are William Bill Cook 44 years old of Pike electrician for the coal company at dun Larry kis elwick 46 years old of elorn City bookkeeper and part owner of the elwick coal company there Tom Baker 32 years old farmer of beaver Creek near near elorn City ran Potter 23 years old of mar marrowbone Creek a miner the four were returning from the direction of the Virginia Kentucky line when the car owned and believed to have been driven by cook plunged off the road knocked down a tree and dropped into a riverbed 300 ft over a perpendicular Cliff coming to arrest partly submerged the time of the crash has been placed at about 12:30 a.m. from Friday as the watches carried by two the men stopped near this hour and the Crash Was Heard by a farmer in the neighborhood at approximately this time although the death plunge took place near midnight the tragedy did not become known until more than 12 hours later and it was late Friday afternoon before the bodies were transferred to pikul for a preparation for Burial at 9:00 Friday morning Jess eping and Columbus Spears resident of irginia noticed automobile tracks leading over the hill at pool point and found the car after a brief investigation the hill at this point is almost perpendicular and the Machine could not be reached from the roads side of the river these men notified warly Potter a farmer who made the gruesome Discovery as he rode a boat across the river to the machine at 1:00 Friday afternoon you know the that's the thing about beautiful nature scenes there you know a volcano is beautiful but it's extremely dangerous and I suppose places places like this there's a really steep curve up there anyway we're going to head on up here and we've got another stop too to make a few other things and but we just wanted to make sure that we stopped by pull Point here and that's it right directly in the center of your screen the road comes out like I said the road comes out here and loops and goes back around and right here is where all the accidents have happened it's sort of a you've heard the phrase Dead Man's Curve this is a really good example the men laid in the cold Ravine for about 12 hours until they were found so all the men were buried but no one has a finder grave location and just a general area of burial is on the death certificate most of them say praise Kentucky except for Rand who says Rock House Now Praise I found out is what they used to call this area in elorn city so Kenneth elwick is the one we're going to try to locate today cuz we think that he's buried with his family in elorn city now elorn City used to be called the William Ry Cemetery who is the founder of elorn City so elorn cemetery is not far from here and maybe we'll get lucky but it's a huge Cemetery so we're definitely going to need some luck now Kenneth was a 45-year-old bookkeeper and partial mine owner he was born September 2nd 1892 he was the son of Melissa Ry elswick and John elswick he was married to Tor Ratliff and they had four children including an adopted daughter named Betty Joe now after has passed away his wife remarried but she's also buried at the same Cemetery as well and so is the rest of his family for the most part now of course his family is located in plot a which is at the very top top Hill in the cemetery but that makes sense so it's probably it's going to be the hardest spot to get to but we will get to it and we're going to head there now you ready to go ready okay now this is the top of pool point like I said the road comes up this way comes down and around and I was right over here down this hill a little while ago straight off of this point this mountain back in the day I'm sure that there was no guard rail like there is now and right there quarter mile that's where I was just at down at the bottom but just look at this I want to show you this one spot I looked at this earlier I mean it's just a you know broken off and just straight down but I mean just imagine that you know someone else is driving and you're completely at their Mercy see the river way down through there and you're just completely at this person's Mercy you know when they're driving and they literally go right off the hillside with you look at that didn't take a picture these are all over town these elk and they're all different this one is the Patriot elk how cool is that the flags and different things and in God we trust and soldiers Mia P Mia soldiers from various Wars look at that old enlistment coal miners going to enlist and there's a patriot elk little yeah I did on the bottom of it that's cool isn't it beautiful spot too just outside town it's town right over there okay so this is the elorn city cemetery here in elorn City Kentucky pretty place in it very pretty house but uh right here is the site that we were looking for and we're headed up with you know it it's up a bunch of stairs and up the top of a hill wouldn't you know that one and that's always a guarantee us whatever I'm looking for it's always going to be top of the hill it keeps us young but uh it should be all the way up at the top section a right right all a okay very top of the cemetery let's get to Mountain Goat as most of my viewers know stairs are my Nemesis the hill piece of cake stairs uh-uh my knees do not like stairs this stuff here though hillsides no problem I have no clue what the difference is all right let's see top of the hill section A let me go around that one just look at that beautiful day very Steep Hill older section apparently okay now this should be should be the older section I'm thinking and I see an L's with right over here but check this out something I saw as I was coming by look at that indentured servants and slaves of the Ramy family and there's a whole bunch of really old old grades here memory of Mary Marie do daughter of kenis and Tori elwick this is his daughter wow it's a a lamb too so I'm guessing she died young 1918 1922 yep we're on the right track oh ain't we all right this is his John his dad John elswick April 15th my birthday 1863 to January 19th 1920 a loved from us a loved one from us as has gone a boy we love is stilled a place is vacant in our home which can never be filled it's beautiful and this is Kenneth's mom [Music] Melissa elwick nothing between me and heaven and I believe that is his sister Caroline elwick 1889 to 1980 this is 1870 and 1953 and I believe that's the sister because it says daughter right there so that would be Melissa's daughter um so right here we have yeah that's John El swick's footstone which is a lot of room right there they get gave him a lot of space found something right here I wonder if it might have been you know a footstone you with definitely a grave and it's right next to Mary Marie daughter of Kennis and Tory elwick 1918 to 1922 so she's around four years old so this very well could be kenis right here that's what I'm thinking of here CU it would be next to his parents right above his sister sister his daughter and whoever's down here right see that one down there is marked this one right there is not so it's either that one or this one I'm kind of with you I'm thinking up here with the wife as well the mother yeah um so his wife is buried here too Tori but she remarried um so he wouldn't be near her but I would say so this is what makes the most sense John so kenis died in 1938 John's dad died in 1920 so his dad already had a grave here and so did the baby Mary Marie right here she had a grave here and John had a grave here so common sense would be 1938 to bury kenth near you know on the family plot where everyone else is he also has a grandmother up here named Maisy elwick I saw it it's right there I know exactly where it's at I saw it earlier so I'd put money on that this right here is Kenneth so either he had a headstone or a stone that disappeared or I would say that's what it is it's something that kind of degraded because I don't see them just letting them not have anything it just happens sometimes kind of looking to see if there might have been initials like on a footstone or something laying here but nothing I mean it's been a long time you want to check where maisy's at just see if he might actually I didn't see okay I saw her right about let's see where was [Music] I thinking it's that one down there there's a lot lot of Confederate graves in here there's a lot of them there I think that was maisy's right there gramy yeah right here sure is mais elwick right here I thought so Maisy elwick decent M 22nd 1846 July 24 1931 I would try to read that to you guys but it's just got a lot of stuff all over it and I don't think I could read it very well but I didn't see any more there's one we just happened to stumble across there's several Confederate Graves there there there they're all over the place this right here Mary Ry Potter 1803 to 1874 daughter of William Ry wife of Richard Potter and mother of five Confederate soldiers Richard Potter was the founder of the brakes right yeah yeah oh wait no yeah she's the son she's the son of William Ry who discovered El City the son of William Ry here hang on hang on I'll tell you guys I'm a little out of breath this yeah this a hill mountain goat in training I'm a mountain goat in training I'm not up to his level yet anyways uh Mary was the daughter of William Remy who discovered elorn City and the cemetery was originally named the William Remy Cemetery but she was also married to Richard Potter who we did a video of well Leo did a while ago um up at the braks where they actually owned all that land and and um I'll we'll put a link in the description if you want to learn more about Richard and Mary but their you know their family and their family Bloodlines you know run through a lot of people in this area and Beyond look right beside of it yeah William Remy Jr right there so it's pretty neat William Remy in the back 1782 1865 okay anybody that last name there's a bunch of of ramies in here that's for sure lot of Potter here too yeah yeah William Ramy right there 1782 to 1865 and Anna samlin 18 or excuse me 1784 to 1856 this is the oldest part of the cemetery which you can tell by the names the dates and the Headstones you know plus people got the good parts of the Hill which is the flat top part um as you go down the hill these graves are on a serious slope uh so these these people got the prime real estate as far as cemeteries Go I mean look it's beautiful look at the yeah the scenery perfect beautiful view from up here look at this Heather look over here see there's a civil war Kentucky Cavalry William Ramy wow look at that oh so William and his family had slaves yeah and that's where the slaves are buried it's messed up they don't even get markers yeah you can see more Confederate flags too rebel flags there there there's one in the tree right there but that's where the elswicks are right back here it is I will say it is unusual for enslaved people to be buried next to yes people that enslaved them that's very very unusual I'm not saying it's a whoopy do I'm just saying it's unusual 1886 beautiful little town though is't it this is pretty I always did like elorn City I thought it was I've always thought it was real pretty there's a little stretch has you know pretty trees on both sides I can remember when they those trees were little bitty things when they set them out back in the I think '90s if I'm not mistaken think okay turkey got a all right guys I guess we're going to wrap it up there's you could spend days up here is so interesting so much history so many old Graves uh new Graves too um I'll be updating seeing what's missing on find a grave I took a lot of pictures my phone actually died so that kind of ends my journey here if I don't have a phone I'm done so I hope you enjoyed our story yeah hope you enjoyed the little day out with us and pretty scenery and interesting sites to say yeah and even though it's a tragic story you know I hope you got to see some things that you enjoyed made you think a little bit Yeah life's short you know you just you never know you just never know you're just coming home and and it goes back to be careful who you drive with in all seriousness I'm super paranoid about who I drive with it just takes because you're it's out of your control at that point you know when someone else is driving if you have a bad feeling or if they're doing something you don't feel safe about don't go with them anymore or simply get out of the car you know it could change your destiny or your your your future I should say kace I mean I'm sure if you could go back in time right now and ask him hey would you rather get out where you wrecked and walk home from there I'm sure he'd choose that option and we're certainly not saying that it was uh the driver's fault cuz we weren't there and we don't know just accidents happened but sometimes you do have a choice and sometimes you're driving with someone that you know's been drinking or is on pills or you just feel uncomfortable with but you don't want to say anything you know just say something don't worry about looking bad but anyways I digress yeah thank you guys very much we certain certainly apprec appreciate you and uh if you can check and make sure you're subscribed because YouTube's still having that subscribe issue and people are being unsubscribed daily including us from channels we watch so we were unsubscribed from our own channels yeah we Wen but it makes a difference you know it makes a difference when your channel becomes stagnant and grows slowly because YouTube's unsubscribing people you know it hurts you and uh you're watching you're watching subscribers rack up but then you're watching them at the same time bleed away yeah so anyways we'll see you next time and from elorn City Kentucky near the Virginia state line M heill Billy's out Hill Billy's out guys we'll see y'all next time [Music]

Channel: The Hillbilly Files - Legends and Locations

Views: 49,750

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Id: iaPjJd0eGUc

Length: 31min 22sec (1882 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024