Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary opened in 1896 in the aftermath of the
Coal Creek War, an 1891
lockout of
coal miners that took place in
Coal Creek and
Briceville, Tennessee, after miners protested the use of unpaid
convict leasing in the mines. This labor conflict resulted in a bill passed by the
Tennessee state legislature to abolish the convict labor system. In response the state constructed the Brushy Mountain Mine and Prison. The mountainous, secure site was located with the help of consulting geologists, and Brushy Mountain convicts built a
railroad spur, worked the coal mines on site, operated
coke ovens, or farmed. At the end of all the state's convict lease arrangements on January 1, 1896, some 210 of those prisoners became the first inmates of Brushy Mountain. The original prison was a wooden structure also built by prisoner labor. It was replaced in the 1920s with a castle-like building constructed from stone mined by prisoners from a
quarry on the property. The prison is nearly encircled by rugged wooded terrain in a remote section of the
Cumberland Plateau, adjacent to
Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area. Escape attempts were infrequent and almost always unsuccessful. Perhaps the best-known escape attempt occurred on June 10, 1977, when
James Earl Ray, the
assassin of
Martin Luther King Jr., escaped with six other inmates by climbing over a fence. Ray was captured less than 58 hours later in rugged mountain terrain 8 miles from the prison. The prison was closed in 1972 after a
strike by
prison guards protesting unsafe working conditions. It reopened in 1976. The prison closed on June 11, 2009. Its functions were transferred to the Morgan County Correctional Complex. In addition, Brushy features the Warden's Table Restaurant, which serves Southern and American staples such as barbecue and cheeseburgers in a cafeteria-like format. ==Notable inmates==