The old Landree Mine in Jasonville has been closed for years and is now just empty land sitting useless. Now there is a plan to revitalize the land and turn it into something useful for the local community in the small Greene County town.
Land Development Corp. is a company specifically geared toward rehabbing old coal mining sites and turning them into places that create jobs and help the local community while also keeping the environmental impact of the project at the forefront.
“We started brainstorming on what could be a great, simple use for this property,” Kirk Taylor said of their process. “There’s 22-odd acre of farmland plus ponds surrounded by trees.”
Taylor, executive president of Land Development, told Inside Indiana Business they plan to turn the old Landree Mine into a “farm-to-bottle” craft distillery. He said a distillery would make great use of the vacant land and create jobs for the local community.
“We’ve worked with a lot of the former coal miners that worked on the property before,” Taylor added. “They love the idea of coming back and not mining coal but putting in a distillery and using their skills with heavy machinery.”
Taylor said once the Coal Craft Distillery would be up and running they can expand to make it a place where people in the Jasonville area can come and gather. He believes that could also draw more people from outside the immediate area and stimulate the local economy.
Land Development executive chairman Mark Jenson said they bought the property in August and have since taken down many old coal mining structures left behind by the previous owners and have also removed lots of coal refuse.
He said they’ve been working with distilling experts from Kentucky. Once they get all the necessary permits and the distillery is built they plan to quickly start making vodka and bourbon.
