CRANBERRY

Cranberry, on upper Cranberry Creek in Raleigh County, was one of the few shaft mines in the area. It was originally owned by the Cranberry Fuel Co., and later by the New River Co. The mine, which was down in the Sewell seam, closed in 1958, followed a few months later by the company store. The mine was reopened for a while in the late 1960s and shut down for good in 1973. The New River Co. sold the slate dump to local contractor Bill West, who was probably the only individual in West Virginia to own a slate dump (he wanted the red dog).

Nyla Creed DePauk has written an interesting web page about Cranberry that is worth checking out.

The company store at Cranberry, built in 1927, now houses an antique store

These coal camp houses have been taken care of, probably due to their proximity to the "city" of Beckley.

The engine house for the shaft hoist

Detail of the engine house shows the rectangular hole near the top through which the hoist cable passed.

Another extant structure from the Cranberry mine is the dynamite shack.

I'm not sure what function this shed near the tipple site served.

A vintage photo showing rail cars that have been loaded with coal at the Cranberry tipple with the coal camp in the background. (From the out of print book "The New River Company-Mining Coal and Making History 1906-1976")

Even though this picture of the tipple at Cranberry was taken in 1928, it seems like it still looked much like this when it was sitting abandoned in the 1980s. (Photo courtesy of W. Caldwell)

Mike writes, "I grew up in Beckley and used to play in the Cranberry tipple after the mine closed about 1974. We had at least one BB-gun battle there. The nearby slate dump was a major draw for us kids from the mid-60s on. It has been flattened and the towers on either side of it razed. My father knew the man who dumped most of the slag for the dump. This fellow went to work running the dump bucket at age 18 when they built the tipple in 1927 and retired in '74."

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