MERRILL PARK, WV
Merrill Park - one of the few coal camps north of the town of Logan - housed the families of the
miners of Merrill Coal Mines, Inc.'s Merrill Mine, which they opened in 1921. The company town was along the Guyandotte River, but the
actual coal mine was a distance away up a hollow. So Merrill Coal Mines had to shuttle the men to work and back with their own
private locomotive. The Merrill Mine produced coal into the 1950's.
The coal company housing that is still in existence
along Route 10 at Merrill Park near Henlawson.
Note how the coal company alternated from porch
roofs to break up the monotony of company town architecture.
The abandoned tipple just before it was demolished.
Early picture of Merrill Park mining
camp. According to an August 1922 article in Coal Age, there were 84 four room company houses, and 54 were "equipped with a bathroom."
Why not a bathroom in all of them?
Men working the picking table in the
Merrill Coal Mines tipple.
Dec. 2017 image by author
Dec. 2017 image by author
Circa 1961 image by Ernie Lantz
1922 Coal Age image via Google Books
1922 Coal Age image via Google Books