Erik contributes this photo of the tipple at Dott, WV. He states that his great grandfather was "James Anthony McQuail, one of the sons of William McQuail of Bramwell, and the owner of the Turkey Gap Coal and Coke Co.," the company that operated the mine and town at Dott. The mining village also went under the name of Wenonah.
This photo of the company store at Dott, along with the rest of the pictures on this page, also comes from Erik.
Erik says this is a picture of the original Turkey Gap tipple "before it was moderized."
Another view of the Dott tipple filling Norfolk & Western gondola cars with smokeless coal. I would assume that the Virginian also serviced the Turkey Gap mine. This picture shows the facility in its prime.
However, Eric says this photograph is "the last I ever saw of the Turkey Gap mine and tipple standing. They were taken during my family's 1988 reunion in Bramwell. The mine was under Consol ownership at the time and closed pending decision to either reopen or close forever. Sort of a state of mothballs depending on how coal performed in the market. Most of the buildings were still there, but things like trolley wire were taken down, buildings were in disrepair, missing windows and doors on some. Tools and machines from the machine and maintenance shops had been removed as well. Not visible in the tipple photos, there was actually an unmarked boxcar and a tank car sitting next to the thickener tank, to the left of the tipple as viewed in the pics. I am still trying to figure out what they were used for. Up on the hill next to the tipple were two Euclid trucks used for slack haulage. They had their hoods removed and had been vandalized pretty bad. Operations used in the mine were the conventional and continuous methods. There were no longwall operations at this mine when operating."
Another view of the Turkey Gap coal processing facility as it looked in 1988. In 2002 I drew the map to reclaim the refuse impoundment at Dott for my employer.
In another picture from the 1988 set, underground coal cars are parked and will never again haul coal out from under Flat Top Mountain.
A shop building at the Turkey Gap mine was extant in this 1988 photo, but I didn't see it down there in 2004.
The only evidence of the Turkey Gap mine I found in 2004 was this settling pond at the toe of the reclaimed impoundment, the gate and haul road, and foundations of various vintages. (Mar. 2004 image by author)
