STANAFORD
Stanaford is in the outskirts of Beckley. Piney Creek Colliery opened Piney No. 1 mine at Stanaford in 1902 and Piney No. 2 in 1903. Both of these mines were listed as being
in the Fire Creek seam. This operation was later known as Piney Colliery, and by 1905 they had added a No. 3 mine into the Sewell seam. By 1908, the name became Piney Coal & Coke Co. and they were operating mines No. 1-5
in various seams. The next year, 1909, Piney Mining Co. became the name of the company that operated the Stanaford mines. The last time Piney Mining shows up in state mining records is 1917. That is the year that
Elkhorn Piney Coal Mining Company assumed control of the Stanaford mines. From 1917 until the 1930s, Elkhorn Piney operated, at various times, mines No. 1 through 6. In the late 1930s, The Koppers Coal Co., the coal
mining arm of coke giant Koppers Company, was the operator of Stanaford No. 1 (Beckley seam) and Stanaford No. 6 (Sewell seam). No. 6 was a sprawling mine with a tipple at what is now Ragland Road. Eventually, Eastern Fuel and
Gas Associates purchased Koppers' mines and operated them as their Koppers Division. EFGA sold the Stanaford mines to The New River Company in 1944. NRC would own the Stanaford mines to the end. Stanaford No. 6 closed
in 1954, and No. 1 in 1955. However, No. 2, or 2-G was reopened circa 1960. This mine shows up in state mining records through 1969. I believe these reserves were later folded into the nearby Skelton operation
By the 1970s and 1980s Stanaford coal was transported to the Meadow Creek prep plant for processing and final shipment.
Update: I have learned that this tipple was from the Beckley Fire Creek Coal Company's Penman Mine. The mine was in the Fire Creek seam on the other side of Piney Creek from Stanaford. The actual coal camp of Penman
was high up on the plateau above, next to where the federal prison is now located. There were about 50 houses, a company store, and a school.
1970s New River Company image
By the time this picture of the Stanaford Company Store was taken, it was no longer open as a store.
Feb. 2005 image by author
Orignially the Stanaford coal camp was at the bottom of the mountain next to the tipple. None of those homes have survived. Later these company houses
were constructed at the top of the mountain.
Feb. 2005 image by author
Only a few of these coal camp houses remain at Stanaford.
Feb. 2005 image by author
The hoist house is still at the top of the mountain, too.
Feb. 2005 image by author
However, the incline and tipple are now demolished, and only the foundations such as this remain.
Feb. 2005 image by author
A piece of chutework laying around the tipple ruins.
Feb. 2005 image by author
These foundations once cradled a horizontal tank.
Feb. 2005 image by author
An extant vertical tank at the Stanaford tipple site.
Feb. 2005 image by author
I was surprised to learn that there was another tipple across the railroad tracks from the Stanaford tipple. It was on a long ago abandoned rail siding of which
only moss-covered ties remain. This wooden tipple, shown here, is now a collapsed heap of boards. A conveyor coming to the tipple spanned Piney Creek, and came from a headhouse on the other side of the stream, visable in the
background of this picture.
Feb. 2005 image by author
The Penman Mine conveyor that crossed the stream has been twisted by flooding. It was probably the incredible flood of July 2001 that uprooted the concrete support.
Feb. 2005 image by author
One of the only reminders that people once lived in Piney Creek gorge. (A few do live on Upper Piney Creek south of Beckley.)
Feb. 2005 image by author
All that's left there are foundations and ruins of mine structures and the CSX rail spur that goes from Prince to Glen Daniel.