A preview of the Portal 31 underground tour will be offered to Harlan County natives returning for the Tri-Cities Grand Reunion.

"We hope that the county will see a positive impact from this project and that people will come to see where their grandfathers mined coal," said Bobbie Gothard, director of the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum and tour coordinator.

Now under construction, the portal is scheduled to be completed by Spring 2004.

Once the attraction is completed, visitors will be taken 800 feet into the mine to view animated robotic exhibits illustrating the history of mining from the days of picks and mules to the powerful earth moving machines used today. The tour will last about 30 minutes.

"This will be a story of an Italian immigrant, who came to this country to work in the coal mines and the changes that took place in the mining industry during his life," said Gothard.

The story will also illustrate the changing circumstances faced by the miner's son and grandson in the mines.

To date, the portal has received a safety overhaul, leaving the installation of a new electrical system, animated exhibits and a mantrip car for completion.

The June 14 preview will feature three guided walk-through tours with a project engineer. Hard hats and battery lights will be available for visitors. Preregistration and prepayment is required.

A U.S. Steel operation, Portal 31 opened as a working mine in 1920. It had 13 miles of track running through the mountain to an opening at Collier's Creek in Letcher County and was the first coal mine to have electricity at its face.

In 1917, the U.S. Steel Coal and Coke Co. bought 40,000 acres and formed Lynch, named in honor of the company's first president, Thomas Lynch. Over a 40-year span, more than 1 million tons of coal per year passed through Portal 31, and that Lynch's tipple was the largest in the world when it was built in the early 1920s.

Lynch was a bustling town in its heyday when some 10,000 people from some 30 different countries lived there. Now, the population is little more than 1,000.

Benham, hit just as hard as Lynch by mine closings, has turned an old company school into the Schoolhouse Inn and a former store into a Kentucky Coal Mining Museum to try to capitalize on tourism.

Southeast Community College, which oversees the project, has spent $750,000 to strengthen the walls inside of the mine. Additional federal and state funds have been set aside to develop the underground mining exhibits.

The Associated Press Contributed to this story.