NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA COALFIELDS
DEDICATED TO ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE NORTHERN WEST VIRGINIA COAL INDUSTRY
FAIRMONT-PHILLIPI COALFIELD MONONGALIA, MARION, HARRISON, PRESTON, BARBOUR, AND TAYLOR COUNTIES
ELKINS COALFIELD RANDOLPH, UPSHUR, LEWIS, GILMER, BRAXTON, & WEBSTER COUNTIES
UPPER POTOMAC RIVER COALFIELD MINERAL, GRANT, AND TUCKER COUNTIES
PANHANDLE COALFIELD MARSHALL, OHIO, BROOKE, AND HANCOCK COUNTIES
UPPER YOUGHIOGHENY COALFIELD PRESTON COUNTY AND GARRETT COUNTY, MD
MEADOW BRANCH COALFIELD (ANTHRACITE)
BERKELEY COUNTY
(There are also the Winding Gulf, New River, Kanawha, Flat Top, Williamson, Logan, and Greenbrier Coalfields in Sorthern West Virginia.)
This is a presentation of historically significant coal mining towns in Northern West Virginia. A coal camp is a town where everything was built and owned by a coal company, including schools, churches, stores, theatres, and residential structures. Coal camps in Northern West Virginia generally date from the 1890s through the 1920s.
High quality bituminous coal is still mined in Northern West Virginia, and the state is the No. 2 coal producer in tonnage in the nation. (The reason Wyoming is No. 1 is because the low quality coal seams there are 40 feet thick.)