Fies was home to a coal mine operated by the Miners Coal Company, mining coal from the extension of the Illinois coal basin into Kentucky.[3] Work on opening the mine had already begun in 1949, with the mine scheduled to be served by the Illinois Central, and Louisville and Nashville railroads.[4] The mine was opened in a ceremony in 1950, and named after Milton Fies, a noted engineer and chemist, initially to mine coal from the Kentucky no. 11 coal seam.[5] In 1952 personnel from the mine won the Western Kentucky Mining Institute prize for mine rescue.[6]
The Fies Mine was started as a non-union mine, though the United Mine Workers union attempted to organise there. In 1950 a watchman was killed at the mine in a drive-by shooting during attempts by the UMW to organise at the mine.[7]
By 1972 coal from both the Kentucky no. 9 and Kentucky no. 11 seams were being mined at Fies. By the early 1980s one of the two mines at Fies was scheduled to close.[8] The Fies Mine was abandoned in November 1980.[9]
