FLAT TOP - POCAHONTAS COALFIELD
MISCELLANEOUS SCENES FROM McDOWELL COUNTY
These men in Eastern Coal Sales's coal mine at Premier, WV are bringing a trip of loaded cars to the headhouse or tipple.
This tipple at Premier belonged to Royalty Smokeless Coal Co.
I know this is a terrible picture of the Premier tipple, but as far as I know it is the only color photo of it that exists.
Less than a year later it was demolished.
This lady is packing her husband's dinner bucket before he goes to his shift at the mine. Photo taken at Pando Coal Company's Mohegan coal camp. Not long after this photo
was taken, Pando closed the Mohegan mine. An earlier (1924-1931) operator of the Mohegan mine was Monarch Smokeless Coal Co.
Ruins of the Peerless Coal and Coke Company store in Vivian, WV. Peerless mined coal here off and on from 1898 until the 1950's. But there was another
company operating simultaneously at Vivian: Bottom Creek Coal & Coke Co. Bottom Creek's mine was open from 1898 until 1926.
A closer view of the company store in Vivian. Its a shame that some people chose to damage the structure instead of preserving it as a community center - a lost opporunity to create a source of pride and heritage for the community.
Coal camp of Coalwood, domain of the Carter Coal Co. and, later, Olga Coal Co.. The No. 2 mine was a drift into the Sewell seam, as was the Nora mine, and the No. 1 was a shaft down into Pocahontas No. 4. For
more Coalwood click here.
The coal town of Six, WV is down the road from Coalwood. This was another Carter Coal Co. mine and camp.
Val contributes this 1915 photo and writes, "Must have been a Sunday, too dressed up too work, shoes shined. Elbert E. Newman 23 on left. His brother AJ Newman 33 on the right. Boy in middle Rupert Burton Davis 14, Elbert's brother-in-law all from Carroll Co. VA.
Elbert's brother Samuel's body was found on a burning slag pit in 1905 at 'Six' in Carreta, WV. The mines were part of the young men of VA's early days, and for some not their life long profession. These 3 all came from Virginia farming families. All returned to Virginia. Elbert went on to be a carpenter/building contractor, Rupert a wagon builder, and AJ a train engineer." Val credits
the photo to Elbert Newman's daughter, Thelma Ardythe Newman.
Last vestiges of Yukon Pocahontas Coal Company's coal camp at Yukon, WV.
Venilated tunnel near Elkhorn, WV is appropriately named the Elkhorn Tunnel. It
is over 7000 feet long, and replaced an earlier Elkhorn Tunnel from an earlier alignment of the N&W Railway. Built in 1949-50 by the Sturm & Dillard Construction Company from Ohio, the tunnel still sports the
ventilation fans for steam trains, which was turned off for the last time in 1961.
Dilapidated tipple as viewed from across Dry Fork
A closer view of the same tipple shows it's wood framed construction.
Detail of a collapsing bin on the tipple along Dry Fork. Despite efforts of the Coal Heritage Authority to save it, the
structure has been razed.
An old McNally washer and other equipment in the same tipple.
This little coal town on the outskirts of
Anawalt was known as O'Toole, and also Lila. Some of the people living in these houses might have also worked in Southern Pocahontas Coal
Company's Laura Jean Mine.
A sturdy old store building in Anawalt.
Downtown Northfork, where companies such as Fortune Hunter Coal Co. and Elk Ridge Coal Co. have mined. Northfork
is not a coal camp, but rather a commercial center for the surrounding coal towns. Howver, there were coal company houses at the edges of town.
Looking at Northfork today, it boggles the mind that there
was once a Cadillac dealership there.
Downtown Northfork in its heyday. Note the overhead structure
suspending wires for electric trains; the streamliner coming down the track; and the railroad right up to
the stores' front doors.
Ancient post card of a tipple at Northfork, WV. This was the Elkridge mine, and a few remants of the Elkridge coal camp still exist
between Northfork and Algoma.
Remains of Elk Ridge beehive coke ovens in a back yard on the edge of Northfork. Elk Ridge Coal & Coke operated these ovens from 1894 until 1919.
Large management level houses built by Arlington Coal & Coke Co. near McDowell, WV.
A little country church in McDowell. This community was not only
in McDowell County, but was also named McDowell.
The African-American Soldiers Memorial in Kimball has been restored since this picture was taken of it.
When I saw the Greek lettering on the sign of this store in Kimball, I had to go in it. I thought it was interesting to find a Greek-American lady and her daughter
running the store and deli, and actually selling a few greek foods. I thought, "How amazing it is to still find a bit of the immigrant culture in McDowell County after all these years." McDowell County was teeming with
immigrants from Greece, Poland, Russia, Italy, and Hungary in the 1910's and 20's. (Mar. 2004 image by author)
Update - While passing through Kimball in 2017 I stopped again at Ya'sou Restaurant. I had a delicious gyro and Greek salad. If I lived in Kimball I would eat there once a week.
Classes at this old school in Eckman, W.Va. are no longer in session.
Coke ovens in blast at Eckman during the 1920s. These were some of the last coke ovens to be burning
in McDowell County. They went cold in 1928.
A few of the remaining coal company-built homes in Twin Branch, WV. Many people have seen the photo of boarded up houses at Twin Branch from when
Henry Ford operated the Twin Branch mines. Rather than let his coal company, Fordson Coal Company, let the UMWA union in, he closed the mine and boarded up the company houses. (Henry Ford also owned mines in Nuttallburg, WV and
Stone, KY) Later the Twin Branch mines were operated by Bigelow and Brooks Collieries Company.
Coal mining in McDowell County continues into the 21st Century, although at a reduced scale. Here's a shot of the train loading at the Virginia Crews mine.
Downtown Leckie, WV, where Col. Leckie's West Virginia Pocahontas Coal Co. operated the mine.
Red brick company-built houses in Kingston-Pocahontas Coal Company's
Hemphill coal camp. This is one of the few coal camps I have found in Southern West Virginia that has brick company houses.
The preparation plant at Beartown, WV was built by Island Creek Coal Company in 1951. It has been demolished since this picture was taken.
There are still these structures remaining from the Beartown prep plant, though.
An old tipple, probably dating from the 1940s or 1950s, is between Pageton and Gary. It was probably built by Nassau Coal Co., which opened a nearby mine in 1948 and operated it until 1966.
Old underground coal car sitting around on the hill above the Nassau tipple.
No one was mowing the lawns around these coal company houses at Exeter in the 40's. Perhaps the
mine was closed by then, the company had stopped maintaining the town, and the woman on the porch and boy
in the road were just hanging on.
Rolfe, WV coal camp.
A few remaining coal company homes at English, W.Va.
Cucumber, W.Va.
Former offices of the Pulaski Iron Co. at Eckman, W.Va. Pulaski
Iron mined coal in McDowell County from 1897 to 1945.
Amonate prep plant that cleaned the coal for Consolidation Coal Company's Mine No. 31.
Another view of the Amonate coal processing complex. The Amonate coal camp is just over the state line in Virginia.
Jed, W.Va. is between Welch and Gary. Jed Coal & Coke Co. started the coal mine in 1906-07. On March 26, 1912 an explosion in the Jed
mine killed 83 workers.
Tipple ruins at Havaco, W.Va.
Davy, West virginia was once an important place.
Management level company houses at Excelsior, WV. Excelsior Pocahontas Coal Co. mined the War Creek coal seam here from 1911 to 1931.
"The landscape record of mining infrastructure is expressed subtly by numerous relict features. Sealed
mine entrances, like the entry opened at Deerfield in 1945, make a tacit statement from the past. At Maybeury, only the
concrete piers of the railroad trestle remain, standing as stark monuments to a past era of
economic activity. Across the region, stoneworks of foundations and retaining walls crafted by
immigrant Italian masons exist as ubiquitous markers indentifying abandoned mine entries and
tramways. Sue Newton, a Keystone resident, observed that today people look unkindly on McDowell
County and its hard times and forget that for a long time it brought a lot of money and jobs to West
Virginia. It also is easy to forget the area's lengthy contribution to national industrial
expansion." From "A Southern West Virginia Mining Community Revisited" by Tyrel G. Moore. (Southeastern Geographer, 1998)
August 1944 image courtesy VT ImageBase, housed and operated by Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries; scanning by Digital Imaging, Learning Technologies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Feb. 1991 State Historic Preservation Office image
Nov. 1999 image by author
1940's image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
April 2006 image by author
April 2006 image
Nov. 2001 image by author
Jan. 2017 image by author
Image courtesy of Val
Nov. 1999 image by author
Nov. 2000 image by author
Nov. 1999 image by author
Oct. 2005 image by author
Oct. 2005 image by author
May 2003 image courtesy of John Sadowski
April 2006 image by author
Mar. 2017 image by author
Nov. 2000 image by author
Feb. 2017 image by author
1940's image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
Image courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives
Mar. 2022 image by author
April 2014 image by author
April 2014 image by author
Nov. 2000 image by author
Mar. 2004 image by author
Feb. 2017 image by author
Image contributed by Buddy French
Google Street View image
2001 image by others
Apr. 2006 image by author
Feb. 2005 image by author
Nov. 1999 image by author
Feb. 2018 image by author
Apr. 2006 image by author
Sept. 1996 WV SHPO image
1940's image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
April 2014 image by author
Image by Bob Bellamy
Image courtesy of Alan "Cathead" Johnston
Image courtesy of Alan "Cathead" Johnston
Jan. 2017 image by author
Jan. 2017 image by author
Feb. 2018 image by author
2002 image by David Grubb
Nov. 2018 image by author
Oct. 2022 image by author