Collins school was built in the Epperly Hill section of the camp and it closed in 1963. Their mascot was the Pirates. Winding Gulf, which was the third largest town in Raleigh County in the 1920s, consisted of Winding Gulf Collaries No. 1 camp, No. 2 camp, Lynwynn camp, Epperly Hill, and Farley Hill (not company owned). Today a few people still live on Epperly Hill, Farley Hill, & Lynwinn. No. 1 camp has 2 families, and No. 2 camp is gone.
This area was the "Colored Camp" (in period lingo).(October 1997 photo)
This was the last company house in the bottom of Winding Gulf No. 1 camp, but as of Dec. 2004 it has mostly fallen apart. (October 1997 photo)
African-American church on the side of Epperly Hill (October 1997 photo)
Typical foreman's house on Epperly Hill. The porch enclosure is not original. There are still three of these homes on Epperly Hill, and on one of them a red brick foundation is visable, whereas the miners' homes in the bottom of the hollow were built on posts. In addition to
these large homes there are several other houses on Epperly Hill that appear to date from the 1910s-20s. They are not of the same shape and style, and may have been built by the coal company to house a company doctor, school teachers, store managers, and other officials. One man told me that his family lived on Epperly Hill. His father was a carpenter. I
asked him if a carpenter worked underground, and he said that a carpenter built and repaired structures on the surface, like the houses and tipple.
At one time there was an incline from the bottom at Winding Gulf No. 1 up to Epperly Hill. This wasn't for coal or passengers, but for the freight in building the houses, and possibly later just to take supplies up the mountain that may have came in on the train. This incline had been removed by the 1930s. (October 1997 photo)
Steps from No. 1 camp to Collins School that the children used. Many people have happy childhood memories at Winding Gulf. One gentleman recalled waiting until the mines closed on Sundays, and he and his buddies pushing the underground coal cars up the hollow and riding them down. He also remembered
playing in the sand house, which was a shed where the coal company stored sand that it used in various ways. (May 2000 photo)
House ruins on the road between the No. 1 camp and Epperly Hill (October 1997 photo)
A burned out fanhouse between No. 1 and No. 2 camps. This is now gone and has been replaced with a concrete cap over the shaft. (May 2000 photo)
Foundations for railroad trestle at No. 2 camp (October 1997 photo)
This portal remains from the No. 2 mine. It has been identified as a pump station. The inscription above the entry reads "1922."(December 2004 photo)
Only occasional foundations like these are left from the No. 2 camp. I have been told that the No. 2 mine was a shaft mine, rare in the Winding Gulf Coalfield. However, Winding Gulf No. 1 mine was a slope portal. (December 2004 photo)
Here is the big wooden tipple that was at Winding Gulf. The powerhouse in the lower left was still standing when I first went down there. The area was reclaimed around 1990, however. (Photo from "A Tribute to the Coal Miner," used with permission)
Past No. 1 and No. 2 camps the road goes up to Farley Hill, a residential section not developed by the coal company, but considered to be part of Winding Gulf anyway. The road ends at Farley Hill Baptist Church and cemetery, pictured here on a cold and quiet Sunday afternoon. (December 2004 photo)
Loren writes, "I grew up on Epperly Hill in the early 70's. My mother was born in the company store on Epperly Hill just bellow the old Collins School. My father told me a story about a coal mine supervisor he worked with at Riffe Branch by the name Robert [H.]... He wore a size 15 or better shoe. Talking to my mom about your web site has brought up numerous stories about coal mines in the sixties and seventies, the old baseball diamond and other thing I had not thought about for years."