This is a well known photograph titled "Coal Camp, near Grundy VA, 1970". The photographer was Builder Levy. I first
viewed this picture (while attending Marshall University) in 1994 in Levy's book "Images of Appalachian Coalfields" in the Renaissance bookstore/coffeehouse in Huntington, WV. I recall just staring at it for several minutes, then walking around the bookstore, then
coming back and picking up the book and studying the scene a little more, because it captured in a poetic way the
melancholy feel of the coal camps that I recalled riding through with my father as a kid. As essential as the row of old company houses, the dusty road, and the choked stream are to the photo, I feel that the most important
element in the photograph is the cloud suspended above the hollow. I don't know whether it is mountain fog, smoke from the coal stoves in the homes, or pollution from what looks like a slate dump in the background. Perhaps it is all
three swirled together. Later I found Builder's "Images" book at the Raleigh County Library and checked it out several times. Of course every picture in that book is great, but this one is still my favorite. It captured my imagination, and was one of the things
that inspired me to get out and take some "coal camp" pictures of my own. Interestingly I asked Builder Levy where this particular coal camp "near Grundy" was, and he said that it was between Grundy and Kentucky along U.S. Route 460.
However, he also said that the little village has since vanished, possibly due to flooding or highway expansion. But, fortunately, the coal camp has been immortalized, and has been an inspiration to me and probably others, because Builder decided to
pull over on U.S. Route 460 and take this picture nearly four decades ago. (Photo courtesy of Builder Levy - used with permission)
Abandoned Jewell Smokeless Coal Co. prep plant
Island Creek Coal Company's Keen Mountain coal camp as it looked when it was new. This was probably one of the last coal company towns
to be constructed in the nation. (Courtesy VT ImageBase, housed and operated by Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries; scanning by Digital Imaging, Learning Technologies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
Island Creek continued mining at Keen Mountain until it closed down the last one, Beattrice Mine, in the late 1980s.
These might be the nicest coal company houses I have ever seen. They may have been reserved for management, because there are smaller homes closer to the site where the preparation plant used to be. (Only a 1960s or 70s vintage machine shop and stacking conveyor remain.)
I can tell that this was the company store because it is a carbon copy of the (now demolished) store that Island Creek built at Coal Mountain, WV.
Island Creek also owned this currently idle preparation plant, located near Vansant. Note the head frame for the skip hoist, indicating a shaft mine. There is also a manway shaft out of view of the photograph. This operation, named the Virginia Pocahontas Mine No. 1, might have sent its coal to the Jewell Coal and Coke
ovens down the creek.
The coke works of Jewell Coal and Coke (now Sun Coke) near Vansant, VA. This is the only remaining coke works IN THE COALFIELDS that I am aware of, though they used to be numerous in the beehive coke era. All other active coke works are located outside of the coalfields, usually in the Rust Belt.
This tipple is next to the coke works, and there is an even larger preparation plant on the other side of the coke works.
Contrast the large Island Creek preparation plant shown above with this small, abandoned loadout near Maxie, VA
At the old company town of Harman, VA the coal company left their "Dictator" logo on this wall to preserve their memory.
Norfolk-Southern's Weller train yard
