Southern West Virginia: Coal Country
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The history of West Virginia is the story of coal and the people whose lives are forever changed by it.
Coal was mined in Southern West Virginia even before the state's birth in 1863 but was mostly consumed within a few miles of where it was dug. When the railroads arrived on the scene, they not only provided a means of getting that coal to market, they also brought in trainloads of workers to the sparsely populated region. With the mines generally located in remote, out-of-the-way spots, operators were forced to build housing for those workers and their families, as well as company stores, schools, and churches- everything needed in a small community. Overnight, the nation's demand for coal turned sleepy, little places in Southern West Virginia into boomtowns and helped cities such as Charleston and Huntington grow and prosper as gateways to and from the coalfields.
James E. Casto
Retired newspaperman James E. Casto of Huntington, West Virginia, has written four previous Arcadia Publishing books. In 2006, the Cabell County Public Library paid tribute to his efforts as an historian by naming its James E. Casto Local History Room in his honor.
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Southern West Virginia - James E. Casto
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INTRODUCTION
The history of West Virginia is the history of coal. Especially during the industry’s peak years from 1920 to 1950, when the number of people employed and the amount of capital invested in coal mining equaled that of all other industries in the state combined.
Most people think coal is a mineral. It is not. Coal is an organic compound formed from the remains of living trees, shrubs, and plants that flourished millions of years ago in swamp-like areas. When the plants died and fell into the boggy waters, they partially decomposed, but they did not rot. Instead, they changed into a slimy material we call peat. The sea advanced and receded and laid down new sediments. Under pressure, the peat dried and hardened into coal. Tremendous pressure might compress a 20-foot layer of plant material into a one-foot-thick seam of coal. Coal is a fossilized plant material—a rock that burns.
No state is more closely associated with coal and coal mining than West Virginia. Coal is found in all but two of the state’s fifty-five counties. Mines in northern and central West Virginia produce anthracite coal similar to that found in Pennsylvania. Southern West Virginia has some of the world’s richest deposits of low-sulfur bituminous coal.
In West Virginia’s earliest years, most of the state’s coal was consumed within a few miles of where it was mined. What was missing was a way to get the coal from mine to market. The coming of the railroads provided that missing link and, in the process, changed West Virginia forever.
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, whose tracks reached Wheeling in 1853, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which ran its first train from Richmond to Huntington in 1873, were the first railroads to traverse the state. Neither of them was built for the purpose of developing West Virginia’s natural resources. Rather, they were built to link the Eastern cities with the Midwest. Both railways quickly pushed their tracks westward into Ohio and beyond. It was not until investors began building feeder lines, branching out from the B&O and the C&O, that the state’s coal riches were tapped.
Later, new lines were laid out across Southern West Virginia with the express purpose of providing access to the region’s coal deposits. The coming of the Norfolk & Western Railway (1881) and the Virginian Railway (1907) set off coal booms that turned sleepy little communities into bustling places. Coalfield communities—Bluefield, Beckley, Logan, Welch, Williamson, and others—boomed and the larger nearby cities of Huntington and Charleston prospered as gateways to and from the busy coalfields. It is not an exaggeration to say that coal impacted the lives of nearly every resident in Southern West Virginia during these years.
The railroads not only hauled coal to market; they also brought in trainloads of workers. Because the state’s Southern region was so sparsely populated, mine operators were forced to import labor. They brought in white Americans from other coal regions (carefully screened to keep out union organizers), black Americans from the South, and immigrants from a number of European countries. As a result, the southern coalfields developed a diverse population.
With the mines almost always located in remote, out-of-the-way locations, operators had to build housing for their workers and their families, company stores, schools, and churches. The worst of these were squalid coal camps
of flimsy, tarpaper shacks, but many were attractive little towns, with comfortable housing, sidewalks, extensive recreational facilities, and other amenities.
Today, coal remains an important factor in the West Virginia economy, as evidenced by the long coal trains that still wind their way out of the state’s hills and hollows. More than 99 percent of West Virginia’s electricity is generated by coal. More than half of the nation’s energy comes from coal—much of it dug in West Virginia. But today’s high-tech mining requires only a fraction of yesterday’s work force. Just as the coal industry has changed dramatically, so has