Coal camps in McDowell County, West Virginia facts for kids
McDowell County in West Virginia was once a very important place for coal mining. Many special towns, called coal towns, grew up here. These towns were built right where the coal was, often in deep valleys. This made it easy to get the coal out of the ground and move it to trains. A lot of these were company towns, meaning a mining company owned everything. When the mines closed, many of these towns disappeared. McDowell County is part of two big coal areas: the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield and the Williamson Coalfield.
The Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield
This was a very large area where a lot of coal was found. Many coal towns were built here to help get the coal out. Some of these towns are still around today, while others are now abandoned.
- Algoma
- Anawalt
- Asco (abandoned)
- Ashland
- Bartley
- Berwind
- Big Four
- Bishop
- Bradshaw
- Capels
- Caretta
- Carswell
- Cherokee
- Crumpler
- Cucumber
- Davy
- Eckman (abandoned)
- Eight (abandoned)
- Elbert
- Elkhorn
- English
- Excelsior
- Filbert
- Gary
- Gilliam
- Hartwell currently called Vallscreek
- Havaco
- Hemphill
- Jed
- Jenkinjones
- Keystone
- Kimball
- Landgraff
- Leckie
- Maitland
- Maybeury
- Mohegan (abandoned)
- Northfork
- Pageton
- Powhatan
- Premier
- Ream
- Superior
- Switchback
- Thorpe
- Twin Branch
- Venus
- Vivian
- War
- Warriormine
- Welch
- Wilcoe
- Yukon (abandoned)
The Williamson Coalfield
This coalfield is another important area for coal mining in McDowell County. It is smaller than the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield. Here are some of the towns found in this area:
