What looks like company houses in Cabin Creek, WV.
Ronda, WV coal camp. A resident of the village told me that it was once owned and operated by Truax-Traer Coal Company. As this photo shows the historic layout of
the town is not as apparent now that residents have added outbuildings and garages, single wide mobile homes, and porch enclosures. Truax-Traer also operated mines farther up the creek at Kayford, and on the other side
of the mountain at Marfork.
Part of the town of Leewood, WV with a portion of the Catenary Coal Co. processing plant in the background.
The remaining coal camp houses in Leewood. Arnold Miller, former president of the UMWA, hails from Leewood.
There are only a handful of houses left in the coal camp of Red Warrior, Kanawha County, on Cabin Creek. Before long, Catenary Coal's big drag line up on the hill may mine over the rest of the camp.
Cabin Creek running full of acid mine drainage. Many streams in southern WV used to run orange with coal mine pollution. Along with burning slate dumps and strip mine mud slides, they were the results of lax environmental regulations that
existed before the 1980s.
A few of the remaining company-built houses in Decota, Kanawha County, where the Carbon Fuel Co. Carbon No. 3 mine was in the 5 Block seam of coal.
This post is one of the only reminders of the largest coal company that operated on Cabin Creek - Carbon Fuel Co. The other companies that owned major coal mines in Cabin Creek Hollow include Truex-Trayer Coal Co., Republic Steel, and Bethlehem Steel.
Ancient view of the town of Kayford, WV. This is the original Kayford tipple, when the mine and town were probably owned by the Cabin Creek Consolidated Coal Co., not the large steel one that Truax-Traer Coal Co. built in the 1950s for their Racoon mine. (Photo courtesy of the West Virginia State Archives)
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