Coal camp towns of Fayette County West Virginia

We take a glimpse into the coal camp towns of Fayette County, West Virginia. Home to New River Gorge National River and dozens of outfitters, lodges and recreational hotspots, it once boasted a more industrious past.

Fayette

The towns of Fayette and South Fayette were esablished along the tracks of the Chesapeake and Ohio when it was completed in January 1873 (7). A ferry operated between the towns between 1873 and 1889 when the Fayette Station Bridge was completed. After the bridge was opened, the two towns became essentially seamless operating as one collective, however, they remained their seperate identities. Fayette was seen as a mining town while South Fayette was more known for its railroad activities. The towns once featured a post office, school, saloon, jail, coal tower and a water tank.

Fayette

Prince

The former coal camp town of Prince saw its boom days well into the 1940s, reaching only a population of 50 (11). It was founded in 1870 by Mr. William “Bub” Prince (11), who had become a very successful businessman in Beckley. Upon hearing the news of the Chesapeake and Ohio’s construction along the New River, he ventured down into the gorge to stake a claim along the river for a small transportation hub. He bargained with his cousin, General Alfred Beckley, for the land.

Upon completion of the railroad in January 1873, merchants began to use the town of Prince for shipment to destinations such as Marmet and Kanawha Falls. As an entrepreneur, William Prince established a ferry near the present-day West Virginia Route 41 bridge (11), which was used by both passengers and merchants venturing towards other coal-camp towns along the gorge. Eight years later, the first mining operation in Raleigh County opened at Royal — located across the river from Prince (11). The coal, transported via an aerial tramway to Prince, averaged nearly 600 tons daily. The first depot at Prince was constructed in 1880, being enlarged in 1891 to serve an expanding trade and passenger count (11). In 1917, the fire was nearly destroyed in a fire and was rebuilt soon afterwards.

In 1942, Robert R. Young became President of the Chesapeake and Ohio. His vision for the future was to create a high-class train that surpassed the competition from which the Chessie was born (11). Considered ahead of its time in “style, functionality and efficiency”, the new passenger cars utilized sleek steam turbine locomotives and were scheduled using a new central reservation system. Along with this vision came many upgrades to the rail system, including tunnel improvements, curve reconstructions and realignments.

Prince Amtrak station.

On June 26, 1946 (8), the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad constructed an art-deco, Moderne passenger depot at milepost 340 on the New River subdivision (11). Noted for its sleek architectural features, it features a 500-foot waiting platform that was designed to be oriented in reference to the meridional position of the sun. During the winter, the warming rays of the sun would warm those who waited along the platform and inside the depot itself, while during the summer, it would provide shaded relief (9)(11).

The depot, at 125 feet long and 22 feet wide, was designed by the Chesapeake and Ohio and Garfield, Harris, Robinson & Schaffer from Cleveland, Ohio (11). The waiting room, with its terrazzo floor, featured a Chessie kitten symbol; it also featured tall ceilings and large windows that maximized the amount of sunlight that would enter during the day. Nearby, modern toilets with ultraviolet lights, a ladies’ lounge, and freight, baggage and express rooms were all features that made the Chessie unrivaled in its class. The depot also featured radiant heating, where hot water from a coal-fired boiler piped heat through the floors and ceilings, eliminating cold, damp floors (11).

It was a very busy passenger depot, boasting the largest passenger counts of any station between Clifton Forge, Virginia and Charleston, Virginia even though Beckley was only 18 miles away (11)! In 1950, however, passenger service between the depot and Beckley was discontinued. Furthermore, although it served a large amount of passengers, it was on the wane with the advent of the automobile and upgraded roads. The Chessie, which was boasted by the Chesapeake and Ohio, never ran a single revenue mile and was soon wiped from the books at the corporation. The station at Prince was the only one of its kind to be constructed to serve the Chessie, and the second-to-last station to ever be constructed by the Chesapeake and Ohio (11).

On March 17, 1975, Amtrak assumed control of the station (11), however, it was closed on a Thursday night in October of 1981. The Cardinal passenger line had been discontinued, and for the first time in 101-years, Prince was without passenger service. A large uprising of support throughout the nation, however, caused the Cardinal to be reinstated three days a week.

On June 30, 1996, members of the George Washington Chapter of the Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society hosted an event at the Prince depot in remembrance and celebration of the 50 years of the Prince depot (11). The station still services the Cardinal line for Amtrak three days a week. Although the station itself is still active, it is not being adequately repaired, according to Fayette County Commissioners (10). In 2007, it was announced that David Gay, a Beckley pharmacist and rail activist, spearheaded a project to obtain funding to restore the depot to its former glory. Federal, state and county officials began discussing various methods to obtain funding for restoration, with the consensus revolving around convincing CSX to sell or donate the property to Amtrak. The depot is considered a liability to CSX and the corporation is “anxious” to “rid itself” of the landmark due to that; in addition, CSX no longer operates a passenger rail business. They are, however, mandated by federal law to keep it open for Amtrak’s Cardinal line (10).

Thurmond

Today, the population of Thurmond stands at a mere seven from a high of nearly 500 in the 1930s (1). But just glancing at the town today, one cannot imagine that at one point in the town’s history, there were dozens of buildings dotting the hillside. From houses to hotels to banks to the depot, the town was a destination and was one of the wealthiest towns in the state of West Virginia. During those days, coal was really king. What brought about such boom towns and their eventual demise?

In the mid-1800s, the Industrial Revolution was sweeping the nation from coast-to-coast. The booming growth along the railroads, driven by the coal-powered steam engine, and the appetite for iron, formed through coal-powered blast furnaces, required a reliable and constant supply of fuel (2). A reliable transportation network would also be required to ship the coal from point-of-origin to destination, and the many coal towns that dotted the region provided just that.

In the early 1870s (4), Capitain William D. Thurmond surveyed a parcel of land in Fayette County (2). As payment for this, he was offered seventy-three acres of land along the river, however, much of it was mountainous in terrain and was far from any population center or industry. This changed with the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad through the gorge in January (4). Soon after, one-dozen coal mines began to operate throughout the area and the town became the center of commerce. A passenger depot, freight station, engine house, water tank, coal and sand towers were constructed. To supplement this surging activity, houses began to line the hillside along New River, followed by the large Dunglen hotel, New River Banking and Trust Company, Armour Meat Company meat-packing plant, stores, boarding houses and eateries. The original name for the town, “Arbuckle” was thrown out for “Thurmond” (4).

Thurmond

The surge was so great that during the first two decades of the 1900s, Thurmond handled more freight than Richmond, Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio combined (2)(5). 95,000 passengers utilized the depot yearly (3). Over one-hundred people worked for the railroad in the town, as laborers, brakemen, dispatchers and so forth, while many others served as tellers for the bank, waitresses and pharmacists.

The year of 1900 saw the operation of twenty-six mines (4), however, the completion of the Virginian Railway elsewhere in the state opened up more land to coal mine development. Prohibition was passed in 1914, curtailing much of the ‘boom town’ rhetoric. As a result, the hotels saw a decrease in business and the town became less prosperous. In 1922, a large fire destroyed parts of Thurmond; seeing the writing on the wall, it wasn’t rebuilt. The Dunglen Hotel was destroyed by arson in 1930 (4).

The hustle-and-bustle of the town slowly waned by the 1930s as the Great Depression overtook the country (2). Coal was no longer in great demand and the population was shifting to other parts of the state. Between 1931 and 1938 (4), the National Bank of Thurmond, the New River Banking and Trust Company, the Armor Meat Company and a telephone district office closed their doors. The town saw a small revival during World War II when coal was in high demand that helped fuel the war effort, but the final nail in the coffin came with the introduction of the diesel locomotive. No longer was coal needed to fuel the massive steam engines which reduced demand for the basic product. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad was one of the last railroads to convert from steam powered engines to diesels, but once it occurred, Thurmond was no longer an essential stop for the conductors. No longer were the coal and sand towers needed, or the water tanks. The train depot closed soon afterwards (6). The town would see massive population declines throughout the following decades.

Gallery

Fayette

Prince

Thurmond

Links

Sources

1. Census 2000 Information
2. “Thurmond, WV.” National Park Service, Feb. 25, 2004. March 14, 2007 Article.
3. “Thurmond.” National Park Service, Oct. 17, 2006. March 14, 2007 Article.
4. Fair, Jessica M. “Thurmond: The Rise and Fall of a Coal City.” West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly 14.3 (June 2000). West Virginia Division of Culture and History. 14 Mar. 2007 Article.
5. Shirley Donnelly. “Historical Notes on Fayette County, W. VA.” Oak Hill: Privately Printed, 1958.
6. Melody Bragg, “Thurmond and Ghost Towns of the New River Gorge.” Glen Jean, GEM Publications, 1995.
7. Guide sign at Fayette Station Bridge.
8. “Prince Depot.” WVe Postcards, 2002. March 14, 2007 Images.
9. “Beckley Pages by DonnaFL.” May 14, 2005. March 14, 2007 Images.
10. Hill, Matthew. “Government officials look at acquiring Prince depot.” Register-Herald (Beckley), March 05, 2007. March 14, 2007 Article.
11. Crouch, Matt. “Prince of the new river.” Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Jan. 2001. March 14, 2007.