Page, West Virginia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Page, West Virginia
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Census-designated place (CDP)
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 Page, West Virginia
Location in West Virginia
Page, West Virginia
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | West Virginia |
| County | Fayette |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.444 sq mi (1.15 km2) |
| • Land | 0.438 sq mi (1.13 km2) |
| • Water | 0.006 sq mi (0.02 km2) |
| Population
(2010)
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| • Total | 224 |
| • Density | 504.5/sq mi (194.8/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
Page is a small community in Fayette County, West Virginia, USA. It is known as a coal town. In 2010, about 224 people lived there. The town was named after William Nelson Page. He was an important civil engineer and industrialist. He lived nearby in Ansted. William Nelson Page managed many businesses. These included iron, coal, and railroad companies.
Page also owned a company that mined coal and made coke. Coke is a type of fuel made from coal. He was also the first president of The Virginian Railway Company. This railway is now part of Norfolk Southern.
Contents
William Nelson Page and the Railroad
William Nelson Page started the Loup Creek and Deepwater Railway in 1896. This was a railroad used for moving logs. It connected a sawmill at Robson to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). This connection was at Deepwater on the Kanawha River.
In 1898, the railway changed its name to the Deepwater Railway. The plan was to extend it to coal mines near Glen Jean. The town of Page became one of the first stops on this growing railway. Around 1903, the Page Coal and Coke Company also started here.
Expanding the Railway System
In 1902, William Nelson Page got help from a very rich businessman. His name was Henry Huttleston Rogers. Rogers secretly helped pay for the Deepwater Railway to grow even more. They planned to extend it about 80 miles. This new section would go through Mullens to N&W at Matoaka. This would open up new areas with lots of bituminous coal.
As they started building the longer railway, Page tried to get fair prices from other big railroads. But he was not successful. So, he and Rogers decided to build their own railway all the way to the sea. This became the Virginian Railway in 1907. It was finished in 1909. The railway ran all the way from Deepwater to Sewell's Point in Hampton Roads.
Page's Growth and Changes
Page became a busy place for the Virginian Railway (VGN). It had a switching yard, a roundhouse, and a train station. For the first half of the 1900s, Page was very active.
However, things changed after 1957. The railroad stopped using steam locomotives. Also, most of the coal in the local mines had been dug out. This meant that many of the railway buildings and jobs in Page were no longer needed. The VGN railway joined with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959. Later, in 1982, it became part of Norfolk Southern.
Recent Developments
In late 2007, construction began on a large coal silo. This silo was 200 feet tall. It was meant to be filled with coal from a ridge almost half a mile away. An intermodal transport facility was also planned. However, these projects did not bring many jobs to the area. Most of the workers were not from Page.
The coal silo was never used. The mine it was meant to serve closed in 2014. The silo still stands today. It reminds people of the busier times in Page's past.
Notable People
- Alexander K. Tyree, a U.S. Navy Captain who received the Navy Cross twice.
See also
In Spanish: Page (Virginia Occidental) para niños
