[2] Its name is derived from the vicinity in which a number of coal mines were operated by the Bells Mine(s) Coal Company owned by John Bell (1796–1869), a prominent and affluent antebellum politician and businessman who was once Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an 1860 Candidate for President of the United States.
Due to vandalism, theft and lack of use, its last members chose to raze the 111-year-old church in December 2002.
Alcoa subsequently decided to place the smelting complex on the other side of the Ohio River in Newburgh, Indiana, and it was reported that Alcoa senior executives used the land in and around the former Bells Mines community for hunting retreats.
[6] The land surrounding and encompassing Bells Mines is now so rich with wildlife, from having been largely unoccupied by people for decades, that it was acquired by the United States Forest Service and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) for the purpose of creating a Wildlife management area from Caseyville in Union County, Kentucky to the former Bells Mines area.
[7][8][9] The Big Rivers Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and State Forest in Crittenden County was declared formally opened to the public on November 1, 2013.