Minining in this field began between 1905 and 1910. This was low-volatile "smokeless" coal, including high quality metalurgical coal and the preferred steam coal for marine applications. The most important seam initially was the Beckley seam. The dominant companies in the field during this time were Pemberton Coal and Coke, C.H. Mead Coal Co., Gulf Smokeless Coal Co., and E.E. White Coal Co. There were many European immigrants ("hunkies") in this field, with Italians being the most numerous, followed by Polish. The principal railroad was the Virginian, although the C&O also had a presence to Lester and Stonecoal Junction. The C&O never penetrated Wyoming County, however. (CSX removed the C&O track along Winding Gulf Creek in 1997. N&S now owns the Virginian track.)
The next era in the Winding Gulf Field began in the 1950s and '60s with the formation of Winding Gulf Coals. Their mines were later owned by Westmoreland Coal Co., who, along with Eastern Associated Coal Co., was the dominant company in the field during this later period. Since the Beckley seam was nearly exhausted, the companies moved down into the Pocahontas No. 3 and 4 seams. This era of mining in the Winding Gulf Field lasted into the late 1980s.
In 2002, Anker Energy's Baylor Mine at Surveyor, Left Fork Processing at East Gulf, and White Mountain Mining at Stotesbury all were idled. U.S. Steel's mine Pinaccle Creek was for sale, too, but was later purchased by PinnOak Resources LLC. That leaves the new Creekside Energy mine at Hotchkiss, the Josephine No. 2 mine of White Mountain Mining, and a few small strip mines as the last active coal operations in the Winding Gulf Field. A CSX employee at the Quinnimont train yard told me in February 2003 that there were no coal trains coming down Piney Creek. I guess 101 years of smokeless coal gushing out of Raleigh County has been reduced to a trickle.
THE TOWNS:
