Crab Orchard, WV

According to state mining records, Crab Orchard Fuel Co. operated the Crab Orchard coal mine from 1920 until 1925 with somewhat modest production numbers. This firm must have lost interest in the Crab Orchard mine, because they changed their focus to the nearby Eccles mine. From 1926 until 1930 the operator was Crab Orchard Smokeless Coal Co., followed from 1930 to '40 by Lilly and Hornbrook. Gulf Mining Co. ran the Crab Orchard mine from 1940 until 1956, and produced in much greater numbers. In 1959, possibly for the last time, the mine was reopened by Crab Orchard Coals, Inc.


Image courtesy of Walter Caldwell This 1935 picture shows the trolley hauling coal past the superintendent's house to the tipple.
2004 image by author There's not much left of the Crab Orchard coal camp.
Sep. 2004 image by author The superintendent's house is still extant, though.

There are remnants of the original Crab Orchard mine around the area, if you know where to look.

Sep. 2004 image by author It was operated by the Gulf Mining Company. Beckley Steel was located at the old mine site at the time of this photo. These are old foundations from associated coal mine buildings at Beckley Steel.
Sep. 2004 image by author This building, which was Beckley Steel's engineering building, was built during the time that Westmoreland Coal Company was operating in the area. It was originally used as a coal lab. Beckley Steel was also using the old machine shop/powerhouse as their paint shop until it burned down around 1999. From the mining complex in Crab Orchard the "dinky" locomotive would pull the coal cars down a haulage track, which ran behind what is now Webb's Florist, to the Piney Creek branch of the C&O Railroad, about one mile away.
Sep. 2004 image by author This locomotive that has been on display in New River Park in Beckley for years was one that hauled mine cars from the Crab Orchard mine portal to the tipple.
Oct. 2004 image by author "Gulf Mining Co." is carved into this stone that was originally over the Crab Orchard mine portal, but is now part of a landscaping scheme at a private residence in the greater Beckley area.
Sep. 2004 image by author There is nothing left of the original Crab Orchard tipple. But this loadout is located on the very same site as the original tipple. Vecillio & Grogan built this during the coal boom of the 1970s when their Ranger Fuel subsidiary was stripping nearby. It was being used by Orchard Coal Company until about 2002, and now appears to be idle. I have been told my by father that the haul road that leads here follows the original dinky locomotive route of the original Crab Orchard mine.
Sep. 2004 image by author The coal is brought to the loadout by trucks which untarp, go to the scale house, and then dump their load into this stockpile area. A dozer would then push the coal into crusher house, which can be seen in the background along with the conveyor leading to the loadout.
Sep. 2004 image by author The dozer pushed the coal through a hopper into this Gundlach crusher, the only piece of processing equipment at this facility.
Sep. 2004 image by author Then the conveyor would bring the crushed and sized coal down to this loadout. The rail sidings have probably been there since the days of the original Crab Orchard tipple, and they didn't appear to be used at this time.
Sep. 2004 image by author Detail of one of the four chutes that were raised and lowered into the rail cars by a cable system.
Sep. 2004 image by author The 2' wide operators booth at the loadout. The two long handles extending down in the upper left corner of the picture operated flop gates in the "pant leg" chutes.
Sep. 2004 image by author Looking in the operators booth there are controls for the crusher, the feeder under the crusher, and the cables on the chutes.
Sep. 2004 image by author The manager's office behind the loadout.

The loadout was rebuilt in the early 2010s.

"'Afraid of the company thugs I took the kids and fled in the middle of the night from a coal camp in Crab Orchard . The company house they put us in was cold and drafty and the rent for it was not leaving us much to buy groceries with. My husband is working two shifts down in the mine trying to get ahead while both of my boys are putting us further in debt by racking up medical bills at the company doctor and my husband's endless thirst for drink. I think their medical problems might stem from the drinking water and open sewer in a ditch running out back. The water was so sour I tinted it with what little sugar as I could so my boys would drink it. I mailed a letter to my father and he came and got us. Your grandfather would finally leave a short time after at at a later date. He would end up as a supervisor over colored men who were working digging a tunnel up at Hawks Nest at one point in his life . He would only stay a few days because he said men were dropping like flies including one he saw dead that was still standing.' As told to me by my grandmother Goldie B. in the mid 70's. My grandfather died of what we now know is Black Lung in 1957."-Charlie B.