CLINCH RIVER FIELD
Coal camp built by Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. at Jewell Ridge, VA.
The Jewell Ridge Coal Corp. office and store were combined in this building, which is still
in existence in the town.
The layout of Jewell Ridge is interesting in that the company housing is high on the ridge and the
coal mining complex that is no longer extant was down in the hollow.
Jewell Ridge in its prime.
A March 21, 1990 article in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph titled "Heating Change
Sought for School" stated, "Rev. Richard Stone, a Jewell Ridge pastor, is leading a movement to convert the heating system at the elementary school
there from electricity to the town�s abundant coal. He feels the change would save money and help stave off the threatened closing of the
school."
The few remaining company homes in Seaboard, Va. show how the company alternated house
styles to break up the monotonous appearance that usually characterized housing in coal camps.
This loadout on the edge of Seaboard appears to be no longer in use.
Ruins of the Raven Red Ash Coal Company tipple in Red Ash, VA.
Old photo of miners walking home past the Red Ash No. 2 tipple.
Vintage view of Raven Red Ash coal camp shows how some coal camps
really didn't have maintained streets.
Different styles of coal company housing at the Raven Red Ash coal camp.
Coal miner's wife storing canned food under her coal camp house.
1982 picture of the Clinchfield Coal Company's Moss No. 2 plant, which was idled shortly after this picture was taken. A Moss No. 1 plant, between
Coeburn and Clintwood, operated from the 1940s until 1989. Moss No. 1 plant has been demolished.
Clinchfield Coal Company was a subsidiary of Pittston, and this is their Moss No. 3 prep plant as it looked in
1989, the year the facility was plagued by a conflict between the UMWA and the company. Moss No. 3 prep plant was built in 1957-58.
Perhaps the largest remaining mining operation in the Clinch River Coalfield is Knox Creek Coal Company's prep plant.
and Tiller No. 1 mine.
This is a well known photograph titled "Coal Camp, near Grundy VA, 1970". The photographer was Builder Levy. I first
viewed this picture (while attending Marshall University) in 1994 in Levy's book "Images of Appalachian Coalfields" in the Renaissance bookstore/coffeehouse in Huntington, WV. I recall just staring at it for several minutes, then walking around the bookstore, then
coming back and picking up the book and studying the scene a little more, because it captured in a poetic way the
melancholy feel of the coal camps that I recalled riding through with my father as a kid. As essential as the row of old company houses, the dusty road, and the choked stream are to the photo, I feel that the most important
element in the photograph is the cloud suspended above the hollow. I don't know whether it is mountain fog, smoke from the coal stoves in the homes, or pollution from what looks like a slate dump in the background. Perhaps it is all
three swirled together. Later I found Builder's "Images" book at the Raleigh County Library and checked it out several times. Of course every picture in that book is great, but this one is still my favorite. It captured my imagination, and was one of the things
that inspired me to get out and take some "coal camp" pictures of my own. Interestingly I asked Builder Levy where this particular coal camp "near Grundy" was, and he said that it was between Grundy and Kentucky along U.S. Route 460.
However, he also said that the little village has since vanished, possibly due to flooding or highway expansion. But, fortunately, the coal camp has been immortalized, and has been an inspiration to me and probably others, because Builder decided to
pull over on U.S. Route 460 and take this picture nearly four decades ago.
Dr. Forehand writes, "The photograph titled 'Coal Camp, near Grundy VA, 1970' is the Premier coal camp just west of Red Ash and Richlands on
US 460 in Tazewell County Virgnia. Attached is another photograph of the
company store, located at the rear of your picture. I took care of many
patients from Premier before the camp was demolished in the 1980s."
Another picture of the Premier, Virginia coal camp, as it looked in 1974.
The shrunken coal camp named Coaldan, Va. In 1917 the operator of the Coaldan mine was the Jewell Ridge Coal Corporation.
A 1924 Bluefield Daily Telegraph article stated, "Two hundred and fifty men will be
thrown out of employment this week
when the big coal operations of the
Consolidation Coal Co. at Seaboard
and Coaldan are permanently closed.
The shut-down is said to be the
result of adverse business conditions
and the low price of coal. Most of
the mines at Coaldan have already
been closed and the last car of coal
will be shipped from the Seaboard
mines by Thursday. The large commissary at Seaboard has already been
closed and the stock shipped to the
other mining operations of the Consolidation Coal Co. The store at
Coaldan will remain open according
to an anannouncement made Friday.
The entrances to the mines are being
sealed and much of the machinery is
being shipped away ..."
READING MATERIAL: "Wilder Days: Coal Town Life on Dumps Creek" by Kathy Shearer
May 2006 image by author
May 2006 image by author
May 2006 image by author
Aug. 1946 image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
May 2006 image by author
May 2006 image by author
Nov. 2006 image by author
Aug. 1946 image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
Aug. 1946 image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
Aug. 1946 image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
Aug. 1946 image from "A Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry" via the National Archives
Image courtesy of Bob Bratton
Image courtesy of Bob Bratton
Image courtesy of the Rasnick family
May 2006 image by author
Image courtesy of Builder Levy - used with permission
Image courtesy of Dr. Randy Forehand
Image by Jack Corn, courtesty The U.S. National Archives
May 2006 image by author
