A mine and coal camp were built here in the 1910's. It was serviced by both the C&O and Virginian railroads. There is nothing left of the camp. Eastern Associated Coal Co. rebuilt the mine in the late 1960s. The coal was from the Pocahontas No. 3 seam. They closed the mine in April 1984, although I have been told that it wasn't because it was mined out. The Affinity mining complex is located on Soak Creek between Pemberton and Sophia.

(Courtesy West Virginia Coal Scrip Collecting)

Update: White Mountain Mining threw up a guard shack in 2002 and is rumored to be pumping the Affinity mine for possible reopening now that the price is right for met coal. As of late 2005 the pumping had been going on for several years, but the mine hadn't reopened. Also in late 2005, White Mountain Mining sold the idled prep plant and deep mine to United Coal Company.

An overhead photo of the Affinity coal preparation comples when it was new. The sheeting on the plant is even shiny. (West Virginia and Regional History Collection, West Virginia University Libraries)

General view of the coal processing facility. The large pipe is from the hydrothermal dryer. The N-S railroad track at the far right is still active.

The preparation plant

Could these have been the most ornate silos in the coalfields?

Another side of the Affinity preparation plant.

The loadout for the railroad.

The slope portal near the shop and bathhouse has an inscription that reads "1937."

The Affinity operation has been closed for quite a while.

These coal camp houses at Affininty are all gone now. (courtesy of "Raleigh County - A Century of Pictures," with permission)

Rodger shares this picture with us. It is the last crew to work the Affinity plant at the time it was idled in 1984. The coal boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s had ended, and Eastern was closing the plant because the bottom had fallen out of the coal market. Rodger writes, "We were getting $100.00 per ton when the steel market went bust."

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