The Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield consists of all of eastern Mercer County, McDowell County upstream of Iaeger, and Pinnacle Creek in Wyoming County. This field was mainly the domain of the Norfolk & Western Railway. The main line of the Virginian passed through the eastern part of the field also. N&S owns all of it today. They still maintain a large garage for their engines in Bluefield. Mining began in the 1880s around Bramwell (and nearby Pocahontas, VA), and really accelerated when the N & W built their "Ohio Division" from Bluefield to Kenova in the 1890s. A blue million European immigrants and Blacks from the Deep South came to the area to work in the mines. U.S. Steel was a major player in this field until the 1980s. After that, things went downhill fast. In 1950, McDowell County had a population of about 100,000 people. In 2000 there are 27,000 people.
