Just beyond the edge of the coalfields the town of Hinton once contained a huge rail yard that employed approximately 1000 workers. But, even though those glory days are over, Hinton, WV still exists on the banks of the New River.
Just before the coal era dawned in the New River Gorge the Irish immigrants that were constructing the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad along the river settled in Richmond District, Raleigh County, just at the extent of mineable coal. They built St. Colman Church there in 1876-78. In later years they were buried in the cemetery behind the church.
As this picture attests, the church is still standing on top of Irish Mountain above the New River Gorge, and one mass a year was held there in the autumn between 2001 and 2004, replete with bagpipes and songs attributed to St. Patrick. (October 2004 photo)
Ruins of the iron furnace at Quinnimont, built in 1870. The first coal shipped from the New River Field was mined at Quinnimont in 1873. (February 2002 photo)
Saturday afternoon at the Quinnimont rail yard, which is still manned and active. All of the runs up Piney Creek and the Georgia-Pacific run up Loup Creek are based out of this yard. (February 2002 photo)
The old jaihouse at Quinnimont hasn't held a prisoner in many years. (February 2002 photo)
A scene that is, sadly, becoming very rare: CSX Diesel-Electrics coming off the Piney Creek branch of the railroad in February 2003. This rail "subdivision" has been a tremendous source of "smokeless" coal since it's construction in 1901, but the area is just about mined out. The engines are crossing the New River where they will enter the Main Line of the railroad. (February 2002 photo)
Prince, originally the site of the Prince Brother's ferry, was not a mining town, but serviced the surrounding mining towns. Today the mid-century modern depot at Prince services Beckley and Oak Hill. It was constructed in 1946, and was the last passenger station built by the C&O.(April 2006 photo)
A view of the depot in Prince from the road shows the C&O logo on the building. (October 1998 photo)
The Amtrak streamliner emerges from Strecher's Neck Tunnel. (April 2001 photo)
RC emailed in this 1953 picture of the former company store in Terry, WV and writes, "Did you ever do any research on Cook and Carter Coal Co, at Terry WV?
From what my granddad told me, it was a company-built town, by Dunedin Coal Company back in early 1900's. There was a company store, and a post office too ... When my family moved to Terry in 1951, the store was
owned by Harry and Pauline Miller, [and] it was called Miller's Grocery.
Back in the 40's and 50's, even 60's the tipple was going strong. I worked on the tipple in the 60's, a fellow by the name of Charlie Richmond owned it then.
My grandfather Arnold A. M. use to run the hoist that would bring the coal from the top tipple up on the mountain to the bottom tipple, where it was loaded into C&O railroad cars.
The loaded car would pull the the empty car back to the top, which they called Terry top, [or] Garden Ground, WV. When I came to Terry, there were a lot of
families living up there. Some of the kids walked the mountain to come to school at Terry. There was a couple of saw mills up there too, and my father was a sawyer on the mill."
Treacherous McKendree Road carved out high on the mountainside in the New River Gorge. See more on McKendree Road here. (November 2007 photo)
Sign showing the ubiquitous bullet marks that are inflicted on one-quarter of the signs in West Virginia. Why does anyone think this is fun? Is their life that lame? (April 2001 photo)
Ruins of the coal processing facility at Claremont. The mine and coal camp at Claremont were built by the Beechwood Coal and Coke Co. in 1889. Like most New River mines, they were in the Fire Creek seam. The original mine closed in 1942, and the town was abandoned, but later United Pocahontas Coal Co. opened a new preparation plant and mine at Claremont. Mining ceased in the mid-1980s. (April 2001 photo)
The Thurmond depot was built in 1903 and restored in the 1990s. Amtrak will stop here upon request. (April 2006 photo)
Thurmond, WV. So much has been written about Thurmond that I don't need to go into detail here. I'll just say that Thurmond was truly the heart and soul of the New River Coal Fields. The marshalling yards, locomotive garage, and many businesses were located here, as well as on the "south side."
Thurmond is now a ghost town, but the park service has done a good job preserving what's left of it. (December 2005 photo)
For more pictures and detail of Thurmond click here.
The coaling tower for steam engines at Thurmond. Steve writes, "My father was born and raised in Thurmond, my uncle was one of the last residents down there. I took my wife just three weeks ago for her first visit. Quite a culture shock for her!
I’m 36, I’ve laid awake and listened many nights while they were assembling trains in the yard right below my uncle’s house. My grandfather,
his younger brother, their uncle and about 15 other men ... came to Thurmond in May of 1912. My family
members worked as freight car repairmen on what is known to all of us as "shop track." ... In 1937, my grandfather was promoted to shop track foreman. That’s when my family moved into the big white house right beside the church (up on the hill, pretty much right above the depot). Anyway, my oldest uncle, Bill, worked in the mines, first at Oakwood and then at Lochgelly until that mine closed. He was
a fabricator and welder, he mostly worked above ground. The next two brothers
in line, Harry and Edward, both worked for the C&O. Edward was still working at Thurmond when I was a kid. We used to go down to the roundhouse (even though it wasn’t round, that’s what everyone called the locomotive repair shop) and talk to him. I wish I would have known and would have taken a camera, we would be in Ed’s office while they were working on locomotives right
outside! Anyway, my father ... got a job as a fireman on the C&O. He never got the chance to fire a steam engine (as you may know, the last steam revenue run on C&O was out of Peach Creek in September of ’56). According to my father, he got laid off when the C&O realized that with
diesels, they didn’t need pushers on Allegheny Mountain ... My uncle Bill (we always called him Billy) lived alone in that house in Thurmond until 1997, I think. He died in February 2001, half of the remaining population of Thurmond attended his funeral (2). Our family sold the house to the National Park Service." (October 2000 photo)
CSX motion through Thurmond (April 2006 photo)
For more pictures and detail of Thurmond click here
Many coal trains have came across this bridge at Thurmond, where the Loup Creek branch of the C&O joined the main line. The coal came from such large coal camps as Scarbro, Lochgelly, and Kilsyth. But now (2005), all of the coal reserves along Loup Creek have been depleted, and the only rail traffic that comes across this bridge is from Austin Powders and from Georgia Pacific, whose freight you see pictured here in a railfan photo courtesy of Mick V. However,
a new coal loadout is supposed to be built in Pax that will load coal cars which will travel across this bridge in the future.
There is almost nothing left of Dimmock, WV except for the right-of-way from the rail siding, a few crude foundations from the coal tipple, and this rusting carcass of an old Buick. Melody Bragg, in her "Window To The Past" explains: "The town is best remembered as the home of William Ashely who had been described as an automotive genius. He is said to have constructed an automobile engine from a steam engine. Legend has it that he had a new Buick lowered down the back
side of Beury Mountain, to drive around his yard every Sunday. Estimates of the mileage he achieved was between forty and 100 miles."
Mick V. also took this picture of what he calls "bread loaf" coke ovens at Red Ash, WV, a mining camp opened in 1891 by the Red Ash Coal Co. This type of coke oven, called "rectangular" coke ovens in Pennsylvania, was a more advanced type of coke oven than the beehive coke oven, because the coke could be pushed out one side by a mechanical ram bar
from the other side of the long oven. 46 men died in an explosion at the Red Ash mine in 1900. (November 1989 photo)
Coke ovens at Fire Creek. This mine and coal camp was opened by coal baron Joesph Beury in 1876. It operated for 70 years. (July 2000 photo)
Ruins of the town of Beury. Joseph Beury, former fighter of the Molly McGuires in Pennsylvania, was the namesake and founder of this mining town opened in 1881. There was even a bottling plant in Beury. In 1909 there was an explosion in the mine which killed 6 miners. (July 2000 photo)
Railroad bunkhouses and grease tanks near South Caperton. (December 2000 photo)
These mining ruins at Fayette, WV probably date back to the Hood Coal Company's operations in the mid-20th Century, and not the Fayette Coal and Coke Company mine from the late 19th Century. The silo, which has a chain conveyor coming up into it, was built by the Blaw-Knox company of Pittsburgh, PA, which was better known for their radio antennas. Also there are vestiges of
about a dozen beehive coke ovens next to this, which probably do date back to Fayette Coal and Coke. Other physical remnants of the Fayette mine are in the immediate vicinity, but nothing is left of the town. (March 2010 photo)
What appears to be the shell of a monitor car near the Fayette mine ruins. (March 2010 photo)
This portal near Hawk's Nest is from the Mill Creek Colliery Co. It appears to have been a fan housing. Thanks to coal heritage photographer Mick V. for this picture.
Ed G. writes, "I was born in the town of Hinton, on the C&0 Railroad and many times walked through the mile long Big Bend Tunnel. I had an uncle who who worked on the C&O and was a signal man in a railway tower in Thurmond and other locations. I appreciated your discussion on the towns of Thurmond and Mullens, in particular. I left West Virginia in 1965 after college graduation and went on to get several masters degrees and a Ph.D. For the last 20 years I've been library director at the University... Each summer, however, I visit various small towns in Southern West Virginia and your website and research has given me additional places to visit, especially coal camps and areas of the railroad I've yet to visit."
SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA COALFIELDS
History of coal mining. History of West Virginia. History of Fayette County West Virginia. New River History. New River tourism. History of Coal. Research history. History of Beckley WV. Sewell Coal Seam. Historic Pictures. Historic Photographs. Genealogy research. Historic books. Historic Maps. Bluefield History. Beckley history publications. History. Polish immigrants. Slovak immigrants. Italian immigrants. West Virginia immigrants. Appalachian music. Appalachian culture. Ghost towns pictures. Geneology. archaeology. Historic architecture. Historic buildings. Historic towns. Organized labor. Unions. United Mine workers. Archives.