2016 image by authorThis street in Logan, W.Va. is actually a remnant of H.T. Wilson Coal Company's mining camp. This was one of the first mines to open in the Logan Coalfield in 1907. I'm kind of surprised that these old company houses have lasted, because they aren't exactly of great quality. Later, under the threat of union organization, coal camp houses became larger and more accomodating than these early examples.Image by Jack Corn, courtesty The U.S. National ArchivesGood 1970s view of a burning slate dump next to coal camp houses at Hutchinson, WV. The Hutchinson Coal Co. town has since been obliterated by the Elkay/Massey/Alpha Bandmill/Aracoma coal mining complex.Mar. 2005 image by authorEmmett, WV was once a coal camp owned by Elk Creek Coal Company, a subsidiary of Guyan Eagle Coal Co. The coal company houses were demolished and this preparation plant was constructed by Island Creek Coal Co. (which purchased Guyan Eagle Coal Company's assets in 1959) to process coal for their No. 10 mine, Guyan Division. Later Consol purchased it, named it their Elk Creek facility, then idled it. It was quietly rusting away when I took this photo, but has since been demolished. The concrete coal silos may remain, however.Feb. 2002 image by authorThis building in Wilkinson, WV was the Monitor Coal & Coke Company store and offices. It was later used as a repair shop. Rick writes, "I grew up in Yuma Camp just around the corner from this building.
As you can seen this building was a machinery repair shop. Note the boarded up section that was formerly a large garage door with a rail for overhead crane.
The house just next door was a very nice stone house - and as I remember they had the nicest Halloween treats - home-made popcorn balls no less.
Just around the corner to the right was J.T.Fish junk yard. I played on the stacks of mine cars and old school buses in that yard as a grade school child."Feb. 2002 image by authorRuins of the coal mine, possibly lamp house, office, or bathhouse, at Lyburn - Lyburn Mines, Inc., and later Elkay Mining.Feb. 2002 image by authorEarling, WV, built in 1913 by the Hutchinson Coal Co. and later operated by the West Virginia Coal & Coke Corp., was once a big coal camp, but has been reduced to just a few homes.Feb. 2002 image by authorWest Virginia Coal & Coke mined coal at Earling from 1925 until 1951.April 1991 WV SHPO imageThe tipple that used to be at Earling.Chesapeake & Ohio Railway image via Google BooksNewly constructed coal camp of Logan Coal Company along Dingess Run near Ethel.Feb. 2002 image by authorLast few homes left at Taplin, WV. Coal companies that mined at Taplin included Cedar Gas Coal Co., H&B Coal Co., and Elkay Mining.Chesapeake & Ohio Railway image via Google BooksTipple and incline at the Fort Branch Mine.Sep. 2001 image by authorThis residential area between Logan and Holden illustrates how people are crowded in the narrow valley bottoms between very steep hillsides in this part of Appalachia.Nov. 2001 image by authorThe tipple at Rich Creek was closed on this day.Image from "Coal and People" by Shirley Young CampbellIncredibly, Island Creek Coal Company was still operating retail "company stores" like this as late as 1980. This one was probably in western Wyoming County.2012 image courtesy of Coty SheppardCoty sent in this picture of an industrial structure on Middle Fork of Island Creek. I can't help but think it might have been part of West Virginia Coal & Coke's Micco or Omar No. 4 coal mines.2012 image by othersLogan Chilton Coal Co. operated the Rita coal mine in Logan County from 1929 until 1950. As late as 2012 people were still renting these coal camp houses at Rita from the land company - DB Land LLC - that inherited them from a coal company. In September 2012, DB sent Rita residents notice that they would have to vacate their old coal company homes, presumably because they would be demolished (for a new mine perhaps?). The inhabitants of the houses were upset, and did not want to leave, so the land company worked with them to survey lots around the houses and sell them to the Rita residents. One Rita local was quoted in the media as saying "Every memory I got and these other people is the same way, their whole lives played out here. Just to see it come in and doze it under. And to see what's happened, ain't short of a miracle." So this was a much happier outcome that what happened a few years prior at nearby Dehue.Image courtesy of Ken B.This is the preparation plant for Hampden Coal Co., an active operation near Gilbert, WV.1970's image courtesy of www.earldotter.com, with permissionDehue, WV was a coal mine/company town owned by the Youngstown Mines Corporation, a captive mine of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The town still existed as late as the 1970s, when this photograph was taken. Unlike most coal camps the homes at Dehue were never sold to private residents. Dingess-Rum Land Company owned the houses, and people were still renting them as late as 2000-2001, when the last people were evicted. Massey Energy's Bandmill / Aracoma coal mining operation was expanding there at the time, and Dehue was probably in the way. Ironically, Dehue was named for a man who operated a "band mill" in that area: Mr. D.E. Hewitt. The picture is from a sad chapter about Black Lung in a fascinating book by Matthew Witt and Earl Dotter titled "In Our Blood."1974 image by Jack Corn, courtesty The U.S. National ArchivesDehue company houses were still being maintained by the coal company into the 1970's.Image by othersBandmill prep plant on Rum Creek, parts of which may date back to Elkay Mining's operations there from the 1970's.Nov. 2006 image by authorHomes built for officials of the Clean Eagle Coal Company in the coal camp of Mallory, WV. A roof fall in the No. 3 mine caused the death of five miners on May 22, 1920.Nov. 2006 image by authorNear the end of the CSX railroad that runs from Man to Gilbert is this small loadout. Pictured here is a small manned helper locomotive that pushes the empty gondola cars up to the loading chute.Nov. 2006 image by authorDetail of the dust control spray nozzles at the same loadout near Gilbert.Nov. 2007 image by authorExcavation behind Wal-Mart in Logan got into an old mine.Circa 1922 image from the "Keystone Coal Catalog" via Google BooksCrystal Block Coal & Coke Co. tipple that used to be at Crystal Block, WV - the last coal camp going up Island Creek.Nov. 2013 WV SHPO imageRemains of Wood Coal Co. Mine No. 4 near Freeze Fork.WV SHPO imageCoal camp at Upper Whitman, W.Va. (probably Island Creek No. 20).Dec. 2017 image by authorRemaining coal camp houses from Island Creek No. 14.Dec. 2017 image by authorIsland Creek Coal Company's Holden No. 3 coal camp was probably built in 1916 - the year the mine opened.Dec. 2017 image by authorThis old cut stone building located between Holden No. 3 and No. 14 has been identified as a power station, water house, and poweder house. Later Boy Scout meetings were held here.Dec. 2017 image by authorMemorial to the Holden No. 22 mine disaster on March 8, 1960. 18 miners died from asphixiation and carbon monoxide poisoning from an underground fire. Holden No. 22 mine was at Pine Creek, W.Va.Dec. 2017 image by authorVerdunville coal camp - where the miners of Holden No. 15 and 16 mines lived.
