Bumpus Cove (formerly known as Bumpass Cove) is a former mining area and a census-designated place in Unicoi and Washington Counties, Tennessee, United States. The known mineral production of the cove between the 1770s and 1946 was 493,318 long tons of iron concentrates, 213,286 short tons of zinc concentrates, 29,652 short tons of lead concentrates, and 29,162 long tons of manganese concentrates, and mining was undertaken until the 1960s. In the 1970s, part of the area was used as a landfill. Hazardous waste from the landfill contaminated the land, and it went through the Superfund cleanup process between 1984 and 2002. The area was badly damaged during Hurricane Helene.
Bumpus Cove located within a syncline valley underlain by the Shady Dolomite. This dolomite is the source of the minerals that were mined from the cove, and most of it was in the form of zinc, manganese, iron, and lead oxides in the residual clay formed from the weathering of this dolomite. Some amount was extracted from the sulfides that react to form the oxides.
Mining in the cove began in the Pre-Columbian era, when local Cherokee people used the easily available clay ores as pigments.
The first known large scale mining was for lead, under William Coyler, who operated Coyler's Mine from sometime in the 1770s until 1791. In 1791 he sold the property to Louis Newhouse and Andrew Leuthold, who in turn sold this and adjacent property to John Sevier Jr., the son of John Sevier. Eventually, much of the area became known as Embreeville after Elijah and Elihu Embree bought up much of the area in the early 1800s. After they died, the Blair family operated the mines and adjacent ironworks as the "Pleasant Valley Iron Works".
During the American Civil War, the cove served as a critical source of iron for cannons and other infrastructure for the Confederate States of America. Under the ownership of Duff Green, the ironworks were renamed again during this time period, to the "Confederate Iron Works". Under this name, munitions that supplied General Bragg's and General Longstreet's campaigns were produced. This was considered so important that men could enlist to work at the cove instead of serving in a traditional military role.
In the post-Confederacy period, the mines reverted to the Blair family, who held it until 1890 or 1889, when they sold it to a group of British investors. However, monetary difficulties, caused in part by the Panic of 1893, delayed the disrupted plans to build a town, and forced the furnace to shut down. Mining stayed dormant until 1903, but soon shut down once more in 1909. This was the period in which hydraulic mining was first employed in the cove by the Embree Iron Company. In 1913, a true revival of activity followed the discovery of large lead and zinc deposits using churn drilling for prospecting. The business was successful in the aftermath of World War I, and eventually started to produce manganese.
The final mining in the cove finished in the 1960s, when all economically viable ore deposits had been mined out.
Starting in 1972, a landfill operation was active in the cove, owned by a company called Wasteplex, though this name would later change. This operation, though initially sanctioned and permitted, became a serious risk to local health after repeated violation of regulations surrounding the disposal of hazardous solid and liquid waste. The landfill was not permitted to operate as a hazardous waste disposal site, but these regulations were routinely violated during the seven year operation of the landfill. At one point, the operator attempted to gain permission to dump approximately 350,000 pounds of contaminated chicken at the site, alongside other hazardous waste. Even though permission was denied, some of the waste was dumped anyway.
In 1974, approval was given for the Fowler zinc mine to be the location of an incinerator. The incinerator only operated within compliance for a very short time period, if at all, and was closed in 1976. Local residents contend that the site of the incinerator was used to store liquid waste, which was not permitted. The landfill was closed in 1979, largely as a response to local pressure.
The following year Skip Foss, the president of the Bumpass Cove Citizens Group, testified before Congress. He stated that as much as 60,000 gallons of tridichlorobenzene had been dumped at the site, and that some of it had been sprayed on roads to keep dust down, similar to the method of dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri. This testimony was part of the hearings that eventually lead to the passing of CERCLA act of 1980, which established the Superfund program. After five years of management by the state, the site started going through the Superfund cleanup process in 1984. In 1992, residents were advised to use bottled water instead of groundwater. Eventually, access to the Jonesboro water supply was secured. The site was removed from the National Priorities List in 2002.
A $20 million class action lawsuit, Walls v. Waste Resource Corp., was filed by the residents of the cove. This was eventually settled, and, according to an interview of Skip Foss conducted by Robert Marsh, succeeding in identifying responsible parties, which he considered key in assigning clean-up costs and securing long term access to clean water. Some monetary damages were agreed to in the settlement as well.
Stories about resident opposition to the landfill were told in the 1985 documentary You Got to Move. The section about Bumpus Cove, "I'm Standing With You Neighbor", is available to watch online.
The area suffered extensive damage as a result of the passage of Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The area was devastated, with many residents losing homes and land to the shifting Nolichucky River. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided some funding for the replacement of property, but not land removed by the river. At Bumpus Cove, the river shifted dramatically, and land that was once away from the river is now within the channel or on the embankment. Some money to help fund recovery of land was donated by a local nonprofit.