Petros, Tennessee -
October Sky House

The house from the movie is still on the Main Street in Petros, but the other items, such as the metal from the set, are no longer there. [M. Hardin, 03/19/2011]

Back about 7 years ago, a movie called October Sky was filmed in the town of Oliver Springs, Tennessee, which has a population of about 2,500 people. If you've seen the 1999 movie, as soon as you come into the town you will recognize some buildings with the Olga Coal Company facades still on the front of them. The museum has a whole bunch of props and pics signed by the crew of the movie.

Then take highway 62 west and get off at highway 116 into the town of Petros. As soon as you come into town you'll see the house used for the movie. Olga Coal Company facades are still up in front of some of the buildings, and the steel used for the coal mine tipple is rotting away beside that building. You can clearly see where the coal mine stood as soon as you come into town .

Just a side note -- Brushy Mountain State Prison, where James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King was kept is in Petros. [Stuart Myatt, 04/29/2005]

[RA: Oliver Springs offers an "October Sky" Walking Tour of buildings and sites around town that were filmed as Homer Hickam's hometown of Coalwood. Call for more information.Re: Note: James Earl Ray escaped briefly from Brushy Mountain State Prison -- June 10-13, 1977.]