Kyle is a small coal camp just upstream of Northfork. Lynchburg Coal & Coke Co. ran the Lynchburg coal mine at Kyle from the 1891 until 1940. Like other coal operations along Elkhorn Creek, mining was in the Pocahontas No. 3 coal seam, and some of it was coked in beehive coke ovens.
Apr. 2014 image by author
Company houses and the Norfolk-Southern railroad.
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Another view of the coal camp while standing on the railroad.
Apr. 2014 image by author
Between these two old coal camp houses sits a little "coal house," where the coal company would deposit each family's coal, then deduct it from the miner's pay. This coal house served both homes, and that is why there are two holes in it.
Apr. 2014 image by author
These Kyle residents have a little trail down the hill.
Apr. 2014 image by author
Coal mine ruins at Kyle. There are also tipple foundations in someone's front yard at the bottom of the hill that the home owner mows grass around.
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This was likely a boarding house at one time.
Apr. 2014 image by author
I don't think Kyle has many remaining residents. The blue car seen here was actually driven by a fisherman who got out, gathered up his rod and tackle, and walked down to a fishing hole in Elkhorn Creek. That stream was probably dead 30 years ago, but it must have been restored to the point where people are fishing in it again.
As you can see from this advertisement in the October 30, 1940 issue of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Lyncburg Coal and Coke Co. wasted no time in liquidating their assests after they closed the coal mine in August 1940. The mine had produced coal for a few months short of 50 years.
Sources:
Schust, Alex P. Billion Dollar Coalfield. Two Mule Publishing, 2010.
