The company store in Nellis, Boone County. This was a coal camp built by ARMCO Steel (American Rolling Mill Co.) in 1920. Eleven miners died when Nellis No. 3 mine blew up in 1943. Originally the mining was in the No. 2 Gas seam, and by the 1960s, the Cedar Grove Seam, although ARMCO closed their captive mine at Nellis in 1955. There are plans to locate a memorial at Nellis for miners who died in mine disasters.
Pictured here is a small portion of the coal mining memorabilia on display at the Nellis Archives, located in the church beside Nellis Elementary School. It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 until 3:00, and also Saturdays from 10:00 until 1:00. The phone number is 304-836-5159.
Coal camp of Prenter, made famous by Jesco White. The Red Parott Coal Co. mined here for many years, and there is still a large coal mining operation in Prenter. That is the Big Mountain mine owned by Pine Mountain Coal Co., a subsidiary of Peabody.
A few more company houses at Prenter. The green one, particularly, is still in somewhat original condition. The Red Parrott company store in Prenter was torn down in the late 1980s or early 1990s, according to town historian Sandy Jones.
These larger homes in Prenter must have been for foremen or bosses. The one at the right has been completely remodled.
1924 view of Vermillion Coal Company's tipple and coal camp at Orgas, WV. (Courtesy of the Nellis Archives)
I love these concrete coaling towers that the railroads installed at their train yards for steam locamotives. This one is at the former C&O Elk Run
Junction Yard, along the Coal River in Boone County.
Abadoned coal camp house, probably built by Anchor Coal Co., in High Coal, WV. This town, just down the hill from the Seng Creek Tunnel, has almost totally returned to nature.
A coal camp house in Dorothy that is in more or less original condition. Like Eunice, the C&O owned Dorothy, Raleigh County, and the miners there had plenty of room to move around in the 11-12 foot Dorothy seam. In later years, Coal River Mining Co. harvested the Powellton seam at Dorothy. In the 21st Century, Dorothy is just a quiet country town.
The C&O Railroad originally owned the mining town of Eunice, Raleigh County in the 1920s, where they mined a 5-foot section of the Dorothy seam. Princess Dorothy Coal Co. was the owner of Eunice in the 1940s and '50s. Bethlehem Steel later ran the mines, and they were in the Eagle seam. It has been said that the company store in Eunice was open until the late 1980s, an incredibly late date for a company store.
The coal preparation facility that used to be at Stickney, Raleigh County (courtesy of "Raleigh County - A Century of Pictures," with permission). The owners of the Stickney Mine were ARMCO Steel.
Abandoned coal cars sitting near an old mine site near Edwight (Photo courtesy Jeff Davis)
I don't know why this old general store in Naoma has closed, because there are still several large Massey mines in the surrounding area.
Wharton, Boone County, was one of the last company-built mining camps to be developed (1943). The town is just down the road from the big Wells prep plant and Lightfoot No. 2 mine, an Eastern operation that is still going strong. So, here's one mining town that's not dead yet.
Barrett, Boone County, is a sister camp of Wharton
At the eastern end of the small community of Van, WV can still be found a small coal camp built by the Youghiogheny and Ohio Coal Company. Here is a photo
of the Y&O tipple and power house being constructed. The photo was contributed by "Jim from Bim" and he writes, "Y&O tipple was a major operation with it's own power plant. The cleaning process was called 'sand' flotation."
"Jim from Bim" also contributed this photo of another tipple that used to be located
at Van, WV. About this one Jim writes, "Here is a photo of Sid Brooks standing on the Finnamore Tipple. My guess is that Finnamore Tipple dates 1918. Master carpenter Chap Brooks contracted to erect this tipple
for Finnamore Bros. The pieces were on a flat car and he hired locals to help. Some were my grandmother Carrie's brothers, another tragic story. Anyway, as
the tipple started to go up it was apparent that Chap's crew was afraid of heights. His son Sid was all of about 14 years old, and they needed someone to bolt the uprights
together as the tipple went up. Sid was fearless and he is in a lot of my pictures up high. The pics were taken by his older sister Oma. She redeemed her father's
tobacco stamps for a camera and took a picture album of scenes of Pond Fork's industrial development.
In the pic you can see a sheave block suspended on a rope anchored on both sides of the mountain. You are correct about the site, the little hill south of Van on Rt 85 is called Finnamore Hill. The tipple was on the North side of Van Park across the river.
Also the Finnamore Tipple used two buckets that carried the coal from the drift. The full one carried the empty back up. While Sid was fearless where heights were concerned, he worked one shift as a carpenter underground building trap doors, got spooked and ran into a header and nearly knocked himself out.
I have the hat upstairs. One of the Finnamore Bros was killed in a slate fall and the other brother lost heart and it fizzled out."
A "box cut" for mine portals off of Route 85 in Boone County.
And now something for the train buffs - the C&O Danville yard.
Strip mine highwalls at the southern edge of the field, on Kopperston Mountain. On the Raleigh County side of the mountian it is called Bolt Mountain.
1970s view of the coal mining town of Clothier, WV on the Logan/Boone County border. The town was probably built by the Boone County Coal Corporation, but is best remembered as one of the headquarters of Westmoreland Coal Company from the 1950s through the 1980s.
(Photo by Jack Corn, courtesty The U.S. National Archives)
This portal to the defunct Ferrell No. 17 Mine of Westmoreland Coal Company was once sealed, and then partially repoened. A tragic explosion in this mine
on Noveber 7, 1980 resulted in the death of five coal miners.
21st Century coal miner mining coal with a longwall miner in the Coal River Coalfield. (Photo courtesy of John Price - used with permission)
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