Winding Gulf Coalfield

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Coordinates: 37°41′N 81°14′W / 37.683°N 81.233°W / 37.683; -81.233
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Winding Gulf Coalfield is located in western Raleigh County and eastern Wyoming County, in southern West Virginia. It is named after the Winding Gulf stream, a tributary of the Guyandotte River. In the early 20th century, it was promoted as the "Billion Dollar Coalfield".

History

The nomadic

Commonwealth of Virginia were generally aware of the "rock that burns" which lay below the rugged terrain of the mountainous area which became southern West Virginia
. However, aside from some personal mines, no commercial value had been realized by the mid 19th century.

Noted British

New River in southern Virginia in the United States. In 1853, Dr. Ansted helped identify the rich bituminous coal seams which lay there. His work set the stage for a mining boom in the area, where he invested in land in what became the new state of West Virginia in 1863 during the American Civil War
(1861-1865).

It took transportation and industrialized techniques to realize the commercial potential. A protégé of Dr. Ansted,

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) between Richmond, Virginia and the Ohio River in the early 1870s, and helped develop branch lines to coal mining facilities. Former West Virginia Governor William A. MacCorkle described him as a man who knew the land "as a farmer knows a field." Beginning in 1898, Page began working on a scheme to expand into the Winding Gulf area, which was also in the sights of the C&O, whose main line ran along the New and Kanawha River
Valleys.

The C&O was heavily working the New River Coalfield, and planning expansion into the Winding Gulf region. However, despite efforts to discourage him, Page introduced unwanted competition by what appeared at the time to be mysterious means. In what has become a popular tale of both U.S. railroads and business competition, the story was recorded and told by historian and rail author H. Reid in The Virginian Railway, published in 1961.

It turned out that William Page, who the C&O knew to be a bright man but of apparently limited financial means, had the secret backing of millionaire industrialist

Class 1 railroad reaching all the way across Virginia over 500 miles (800 km) to become the Virginian Railway.[1]
It became a major third coal exporter at Hampton Roads in 1909. Despite the inefficiency of some duplicative facilities, the Winding Gulf Coalfield benefited from the two major railroad outlets, and became one of the most productive in the state.

The mining of

MJ/kg
).

Coal camps

Over 50 coal camps (also known as coal towns) were once located there, with independent commercial districts at Sophia and Mullens anchoring the eastern and western ends of the field. By the 21st century many coal camps had partially or completely returned to nature.

Some of the names associated with the Winding Gulf Coalfields are:

Railroads

The company towns were located along Winding Gulf Creek, Stone Coal Creek, upper Piney Creek, Slab Fork, Laurel Fork, Devils Fork, Barkers Creek, and the Guyandotte River. The main railroad in this coalfield, the Virginian Railway (VGN), had branches running along all of these streams.

The Virginian's main line bisected the field as well, in addition to a repair shop and rail yard at

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) also served the eastern part coalfield, but never entered the Wyoming County
portion.

Companies, ethnics

Winding Gulf Collaries, Gulf Smokeless Coal Co., C.H. Mead Coal Co., E.E. White Coal Co., and Pemberton Coal and Coke Co. were among the early players in the field. These companies recruited native born

African-Americans
were hired to work in the coal mines of the Winding Gulf Coalfield as well. By the time the "coal boom" of the late 1970s and early 1980s occurred, Westmoreland Coal Co. and Eastern Associated Coal Co. were the dominant operators and most of the ethnic diversity had disappeared (including polka dances at St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church in Beckley).

21st century

While millions of tons of coal have been mined from this coalfield, the mineral is still extracted at a few deep and strip mines, and a large

Beckley, WV
started operations in late 2007.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780937058558
    .

External links

37°41′N 81°14′W / 37.683°N 81.233°W / 37.683; -81.233

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