History buffs have had ample relics of the coal boom to hunt for in the New River Gorge, but the search has required a fair amount of bushwacking. Those hoping to lay their eyes on coke ovens, old tipples, bridge abutments, building foundations, and old machinery have had to reckon with honeysuckle, wild rose, and other vegetation trying to reclaim the Gorge.
Now there’s one former coal mine that doesn’t require Indiana Jones skills. The National Park Service has cleared and graveled paths past stone coke ovens and through the old town of Nuttallburg, where nearly 100 homes once sheltered the 400-some people who lived there.
More significant is the coal mining infrastructure for Nuttallburg Coal Mine, which has been stabilized and made safe for visitors. A complete mining colliery is still at Nuttallburg—everything that the coal workers needed to get a lump of coal from the four-foot-high Sewell coal seam 600 feet above the railroad tracks to the railroad cars. Henry Ford had a hand in this. His company purchased the mine in the early 1920s in order to own the very coal and coal processing that made Model Ts. He sold the mine in 1928, but not before he renovated and improved things. The 1,385-foot long conveyor that curves up the steep slope of the Gorge to the headhouse and mine opening could be called beautiful. The tipple at its lower end, where coal was sorted and loaded into railroad cars, is majestic in a rusty and industrial way and pretty cool, too.
HOW TO GET THERE: Skinny, winding backroads alert: don’t go without the detailed Park Service instructions found at nps.gov/neri/historyculture/nuttallburg.htm or by stopping by the Canyon Rim Visitor’s Center (304-574-2115) on U.S. 19 just North of the New River Gorge Bridge.
Photograph by Christopher Danz
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