Sepember 28, 2016–New River Gorge

Today we headed north to a few more coal sites, but first we stopped at New River Gorge.  Despite the name, the New River is actually one of the oldest rivers in the US.  It carved out about 900 feet of gorge during its 65 million years and at one time flowed into the Mississippi River.  The last glacier buried the most northern parts, so now it empties into the Ohio River.

Yes, it flows north.  We are across some Eastern Continental Divide, we first learned of it while in Maryland and all rivers on this side flow north.  We have no idea where that Divide line runs.  The Potomac, for example flows northwest to southeast.  It is weird though to see the New River flowing north.

The noteworthy thing around here is the New River Gorge Bridge.  Quite an engineering marvel.  Built in 1977, it’s 3030 feet long and the longest, single span bridge.  West Virginia is so proud of it that it is on the West Virginia quarter.

The gorge is pretty, but doesn’t knock your socks off.  As you can see water levels are down maybe 3 feet, which likely detracts from its beauty.

We made a few stops to more coal heritage sites and learned a little more about coal.  There are two types of coal; “hard” coal or Anthracite and “soft” or Bituminous.  Hard coal is cleaner to handle and not brittle.  It is preferred where clean burn is necessary, but it is hard to light and keep lit.  Bituminous is pretty much the opposite and has given coal the bad name.  Coal quality impacts BTU, smoke, ash, and sulfur.  West Virginia’s coal is advertised as smokeless.

WV Coal has more carbon and less ash, making it most desireable.  I wonder if that is what is used for the Cass train?

The next picture is of a tipple.  This a semi modern gizmo (1920s) that transports coal to a waiting RR coal hopper car.  We found this one in Nuttallburg.  This mine is located in the New River Gorge.

This is the conveyor system that leads to the mine entrance.  The coal is transported from the mine to the tipple via this conveyor, then to the hopper car.  Now the interesting part.  Henry Ford leased this mine between 1920 and 1928.  He installed this tipple and conveyor to boost production.  Due to the brittle nature of the WV coal,  if a conveyor belt was used, the vibration would have broken down the coal and caused a high loss rates off the belt.  A belt is also failure prone.  So Henry used a trough with a disk and cable system to move the coal down the conveyor.

We thought it amazing he would come to WV for his coal.  It must have been good stuff.  He abandoned the mine after 1928 due to problems with the railroad.  The gorge was a pinch point for moving coal out of it.  Too many mines, not enough track.

The road getting us to this place was a real stinker.  Rough, narrow, tight turns, and a big embankment on one side.  You prayed you would not meet an oncoming vehicle.  Fortunately, we were lucky!

September 26 & 27, 2016–Beckley and Coal History

The scenery in West Virginia is awesome with mountain views in almost any direction; that’s good and bad.  The bad is just about anywhere you want to go, you’re going to be driving a 2 lane, often narrow, blacktop road.  So distances here are measured in time, not miles.  We are in pursuit of learning about the coal industry here which dates back to the 1870s.  Coal fueled the post Civil War Industrial Revolution and West Virginia played a huge role.  Beckley is in the center of the coal heritage trail.

A little history.  Much of West Virginia was farmland in the early 1800s, settled by immigrants from Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe.  It was always known that West Virginia had an abundance of coal, but it was used only locally as there was no way to transport it from the region.  Then the railroads came to WV, and now they had a way to get it to market.  Coal mining took off and many of the farmers left their farms to work in the coalfields.  Farming was tough around here and many were on the brink of losing their farms.  Mining offered steady work with a regular wage.  They saw it as a way to create a better living for their families and a good future as coal mining was growing.  Jobs were so plentiful, they even encouraged friends and relatives to come to the US to share in this good fortune.

Population exploded with all the new miners and new mines opening up.  Well, it was not the paradise they hoped for.  The work was hard and dangerous.    To accomodate the huge influx of workers, the mine companies built housing they rented to the miners.  They built “towns” or coal camps that included everything the miner and his family needed; a school, church, doctor services, and a general store in each of these camps.  No need to leave and travel many miles for these amenities.  Sounds like paradise right?  Well, not so much.  The average life expentancy was 40 years.  Usually they were killed on the job or black lung got them.

The coal companies paid workers in script that could only be used in the company store.  So, the miner was paid based on the coal he produced at 20 cents per ton.  A miner could produce between 10 and 12 tons per day.   They were paid every 2 weeks.  An automatic deduction was made for the rent, plus the cost of goods purchased in the company store during prior pay periods. These items consisted of food, clothing, doctor services, tools, black powder, helmets, etc.  The companies charged high prices in the company store for these items.  If the miner did not have enough money left he could borrow it to buy these things, thus running a debt that would be paid for with next paycheck.  Yes, the “birth” of a company credit card.

Think about the song, “Sixteen Tons”, it pretty much tells the story.  It was a losing proposition.  Once the miner’s debt got high enough and he could not pay it off, the mine companies had him.  This went on for several years until the miners realized they were in a no win situation.  There were attempts at work stoppages by a few miners that were met with immediate eviction from their homes.  These workers were made examples of so others did not follow.

We’ll cover the union push later when we get to Matewan.  West Virginia has established what they call the Coal Heritage Trail and as we said, Beckley is roughly in the center.  We have travelled the southern portion that runs down to Bluefield and visited the Coal Exhibition Mine in Beckley.  First the mine.

The local funeral home did that statue.  Guess they were showing appreciation for the steady business the miners provided.

The mine in Beckley was a small family operatation.  They moved to another location and Beckley bought it for tours and education about coal mining.  At the back of the drift is the coal vein that is about 40 inches tall.  Most of the mines were less than 4 feet in height, because the veins of coal were only that wide.  Why waste the effort moving all that rock?  This mine was enlarged to accommodate our tour tram.  The men worked squatting or lying on their side.  Even today these openings are that small.

This an example of the script the workers were paid.  Each mine’s script was unique, even the shape of the hole was part of the identification.  This is a $5.00 dollar piece.  Today, there appears to be a collector’s market for these things.

This is a company store.  It has seen restoration back in the 90s, but it’s currently vacant.

As you would surmise, mine owners were West Virginia’s millionaires.  They seemed to all settle in Bramwell.  We think because of train access in Bramwell.  The homes for the most part are restored to their early 1850s appearance.

When you compare this to what the workers lived in, you can appreciate the workers’ frustration.   The owners put up the capital taking a financial risk, but you’ve got to wonder; would it kill them to let the workers earn enough to pay their necessities and own a little smaller house?

Tomorrow we head toward Ansted.