Mannix Porterfield
Imagine stepping inside H.G. Wells’ time machine, spinning a dial and going back several decades into the storied past of West Virginia’s coal industry.
Actually, you needn’t look for such a machine.
An easier stroll through coal’s history is possible through a special calendar issued by the Coal Heritage Highway Authority, based in Beckley.
Each month depicts a scene from the past — starting in January with a picture of a youthful Sen. Robert C. Byrd and his colleague, the late Sen. Jennings Randolph, in hard hats during a tour of a mine in 1961.
One can travel through time in succeeding months and get a feel of what the industry was like, such as the once-bustling rail yards in Hinton, the calm-before-the-storm scene of Blair in Logan County and a group of miners, some holding lunch pails, about to enter a mine in Fayette County.
“We also have a coal history event on every single day of the year,” explained the authority’s administrative assistant, Rachel Booth.
“Every day except Christmas. We know what happens on Christmas — you get coal in your stockings.”
Chris Della Mea, whose mother served on the authority, painstakingly went through state archives and amassed enough research to post a historical tidbit on every day of the year.
“There were so many coal companies,” Booth said.
“It’s hard to imagine all the activity and people that were in the coal camps back in those days. For instance in Tams (one of the featured monthly photos), there were more people living there than there were in Beckley.”
Modern times find nothing left standing but a few supply buildings. No homes.
Another photograph shows some smiling people in one coal town.
“You hear so much negativity about how the coal camps and coal barons treated the miners,” Booth said.
“Chris and I talked about this and decided these people obviously didn’t look like they were treated badly. They’re pretty happy. That’s the reason we decided to put that picture in there. Everybody that lived in a coal camp wasn’t unhappy and treated poorly.”
Another photograph was taken in Lochgelly, a name Scottish immigrants fetched from their homeland — a common practi2010 Coal Heritage calendar. ce when folks from the Old World settled into the new.
“They named those towns after their wives, their daughters and even mistresses, too,” Booth said.
Calendars may be purchased at the group’s Web site, www.coalheritage.org, Little Brick House gift shop on Harper Road, Tamarack, the new state museum, the Bramwell train depot or at the heritage office by calling Booth at 304-256-941. The price is $14.95. If purchased in lots of 10, the price falls to $10.
“We also have a little sleeve we can give them so they can mail them as Christmas gifts,” Booth added.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
