The “Powder Bin” on Brimstone near Robbins, Tenn., has been a landmark for as long as I can remember — since the days when King Coal dominated. Now it’s fallen (torn down by vandals?) and will probably soon be hauled off to a scrap yard.

Situated where the old coal haul road from Slick Rock met the primary road for coal traffic at the top of the mountain (dubbed “the Four Lane” by locals), the powder bin was used for storing blasting powder.

Over the years, the property in this area has changed hands several times. The Brimstone Land Company — a land holding group with former U.S. Senator Howard H. Baker as one of the primary players — purchased it in the mid-20th Century. The Brimstone property consisted of 45,000 acres, representing one-sixth of the total land in Scott County, Tenn. In the ’90s, all the land surrounding it was stripped of its timber for lumber and pulp wood. In the early ’00s, the Brimstone Company sold all its holdings to Lyme Timber, a Connecticut-based group. Shortly thereafter, the property surrounding the Powder Bin was among 25,000 acres sold to the State of Tennessee for the New River Unit of the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.

Some timber cutting continues in the area today, but the primary focus is natural gas exploration and ATV riding. Brimstone Recreation LLC was formed by a group of Scott County businessmen to manage ATV riding and other forms of recreation on the 45,000 acres of the Brimstone property, and the Four Lane is Trail #1. When the state purchased part of the holdings, Brimstone Recreation’s management of it ceased, but the North Cumberland WMA is one of the few ATV-friendly WMAs in the state. The area has been named by some magazines as the nation’s No. 1 destination for ATVs.