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    New River Gorge
    New River Gorge
    New River Gorge
    Ebook189 pages56 minutes

    New River Gorge

    By J. Scott Legg and Fayette County Chamber of Commerce

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    About this ebook

    Today visitors to the New River Gorge see a steep gorge filled with a lush hardwood forest. Before the railroad, the New River, with its whitewater rapids, was a barrier to trade, but with the 1873 completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, the gorge came alive. By the 1890s, more than 30,000 people lived and worked in the gorge. Towns like Kaymoor, Nuttallburg, and Thurmond were hives of activity and melting pots of American immigrants who dug the coal that helped build the American dream. Times changed. By 1960, the easiest coal was gone, and miners moved to Midwest factories. Nature began to reclaim the gorge. The 1970s brought a rebirth. Whitewater rafters took on the rapids, and bridge builders built the New River Gorge Bridge. The forest has returned, and if you look under the canopy, you will see that the railroads, coal camps, and mine tipples have given way to rafters, rock climbers, and mountain bikers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439641385
    New River Gorge
    Author

    J. Scott Legg

    J. Scott Legg grew up in West Virginia and currently divides his time between West Virginia and Florida. While living in the area, Scott worked as a National Park Service ranger and taught West Virginia history. He is currently in the process of restoring the Glen Jean Elementary School on the Thurmond Road.

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      Book preview

      New River Gorge - J. Scott Legg

      photographs.

      INTRODUCTION

      Since the country’s birth, George Washington and other prominent Virginians had sought to unlock the wealth of Virginia’s western territories by building a commercial link through the New River Gorge. Unlike other waterways, though, the New River fell through a series of rapids and waterfalls that could not be tamed by canal technologies of the day; the final link would not be finished until the railroad age.

      It fell to Collis P. Huntington, fresh off his success in the development of the transcontinental railroad, to invest his insight and financial ability and finish the connection. The completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) mainline in 1873 marked the realization of Washington’s dream and the beginning of economic wealth and prosperity for the New River Gorge.

      It was also in 1873 that Capt. W. D. Thurmond acquired 73 acres along the New River. Thurmond was a returning Confederate soldier who had led a group known as Thurmond’s Rangers. Returning to his home after the Civil War, Thurmond found it burned and his land worthless. He worked as a surveyor, and when a farmer offered land in lieu of cash payment, Thurmond chose acreage along the New River. He played a hunch that the land in the New River Gorge across from Dunloup Creek would be a good spot for a town and a railroad trestle. The farmer was glad to oblige, and a deal was struck. Captain Thurmond and his sons operated a ferry on the site until a trestle was built connecting the property to the south side of the gorge. Thurmond wanted to name his new town Arbuckle, but the name was already taken, so the town was named Thurmond, and it soon became the heart of the New River Gorge. Halfway between Gauley Bridge and Hinton, West Virginia, Captain Thurmond’s bend along the river was a key spot for steam locomotives needing coal and water for fuel. Thurmond used the money he earned to develop his land. As the railroad prospered, so did the town. By 1889, the C&O had constructed sidings, a passenger and freight depot, a turntable, water towers, and an engine house at Thurmond.

      Across the New River, another entrepreneur was developing a very different plan. Thomas McKell built the original railroad trestle connecting Thurmond to his holdings across the New River along Dunloup Creek so that he could ship coal from his mines. By the early 1900s, hundreds of railroad cars of smokeless coal were being hauled through the town everyday from several nearby branch lines. In 1910, Thurmond was the main railroad hub on the C&O, producing more freight tonnage than Cincinnati, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia, combined.

      But freight was not the only key to the town’s success. In 1910, seventy-five thousand passengers passed through Thurmond, and at its peak, the town had two hotels, two banks, restaurants, clothing stores, a jewelry store, a movie theater, several dry goods stores, and many business offices. Thurmond continued to thrive through the early decades of the 20th century. With the huge amounts of coal in the region and a prosperous coal baron among its patrons, Thurmond’s banks were the richest in the West Virginia. Thurmond was thriving, but it was a dry town. Captain Thurmond was a devout Baptist, and as saloons opened up across the river, he incorporated Thurmond to keep saloons out. He also tried to expand his town’s influence across the river to close down the saloons and brothels in the area known as the Ballyhack district.

      Thomas McKell owned the land across the river, and he had other plans for his property. In 1901, McKell constructed a 100-room luxury hotel named the Dunglen with a bar and gambling area. The Dunglen took on a life of its own and became one of the best-known hotels in the eastern United States. As the Dunglen and Ballyhack grew in notoriety, Captain Thurmond, seeing the reputation of his town suffer, decided to clean up the area. McKell did not appreciate Thurmond’s moralistic attitude limiting his business opportunities and countered Thurmond’s actions by extending the boundary of his town, Glen Jean, seven miles up Dunloup Creek and down to and around the Dunglen and Ballyhack. With the saloons now safe in Glen Jean, there was little Thurmond could do.

      When Captain Thurmond died in 1909, his town still had its best years ahead. The period from 1910 to 1930 witnessed the Thurmond’s greatest growth, and by 1930, it had a population of 450.

      With the onset of the Great Depression, several businesses closed, including the National Bank of Thurmond, and two large fires destroyed local businesses. Thurmond was rebuilt, but the decline of the mines and the automobile’s success meant that many businesses moved to Oak Hill and Beckley. Arsonists burned the Dunglen Hotel in 1930, and Thurmond’s heyday was ending. The American public had begun its love affair with the automobile, and good roads made travel by car easy.

      The World War II era brought renewed vigor to the C&O, but by the 1950s, Thurmond began to slide once again. At the end of the war, the C&O, like other railroads, switched from steam to diesel locomotives, and Thurmond lost its purpose. It had been a steam town; its railyard and crews were geared toward the short service intervals of steam locomotives. The switch to diesels made the railyard structures and jobs obsolete. With the coalfields played out and the trains not stopping, the years between 1946 and 1966 were quiet. Thurmond became a sleepy little flag stop on the railroad.

      In 1968, another entrepreneur was looking for a place to start his business. Beginning with an army surplus raft, Jon Dragan and his brothers chose Thurmond

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