Slab Fork is so named because it is on the Slab Fork of the Guyandotte River. This was the first mine in the Winding Gulf Field, opening in 1907, and operated until 1983. It was operated by the Caperton family. Mining was in the Beckley seam, and later in Pocahontas No. 3 & 4.

The big railroad trestle at Slab Fork. This was the main line of the Virginian, and this steel trestle replaced an equally large wooden one.

The main part of the coal camp. The post office is still opened.

Another part of the coal camp, possibly the "foreign" section

Ruins of the tipple

Tipple foundations

The discharge hopper for this steel silo is formed in the foundation

This house once belonged to the Capertons, the owners of the Slab Fork mine.

This building was the office of Slab Fork Coal Co., but is now occupied by an engineering firm.

Inside of the former office building of Slab Fork Coal Company

Author and historian Jim Wood, in his 1994 book "Raleigh County," gives this harsh description: "Once Mighty Slab Fork, which ran its first coal in 1907, looks like a war zone. The narrow mountain road leading off W.Va. 16 into the town, a distance of 2.6 miles, is lined with at least a dozen trash dumps. Its formerly busy mine building are in shambles, stripped of their machinery and other equipment, some with roofs partially collapsed, windows knocked out, cinder block walls cracked and broken, paint faded and peeling, the tipple gone, rusting metal strewn about everywhere, miles of exposed pipeline leading to nowhere in particular, piles of rotting lumber, a stream full of trash and worn out bits of crumbling metal or other castoff material that at one time served a purpose in the mining of coal, water pouring across the road from a muddy embankment, probably a mine opening." Yes, that is how Mr. Wood described it in 1994, but in 2006 it doesn't look that bad anymore.

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