It was more than a mere structure of wood and iron, the Hardburley coal tipple was a landmark for many decades. Built by rugged men as a rugged monument to a rugged era, it was symbolic of an economy. Across the span of a half century, many fortunes in coal were shaken through its sturdy timbers. At one time it was the largest wooden tipple in the world. Two generations of mining families grew in the coal camp around the gaunt black structure. Men of the hills, men with the strength of the hills, erected the Hardburly tipple, as part of the booming of the coal industry in Eastern Kentucky soon after the turn of the century. The men whose muscle hoisted those huge square oak timbers into place have departed the human scene. There are none to replace them. This is a weaker age, in more than physical ways, too.
Now the Hardburley tipple is gone, it burned in 1962. Besides its purpose in moving a vast tonnage of coal, it was a tourist attraction. Thousands of travelers went out of their way to watch the giant apparatus at work.
Harburly was founded by and named for the Hardy Burlington Mining Company.