West Virginia 2006
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Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine in Beckley, West Virginia. The Exhibition Coal Mine offers visitors a realistic look at coal mining as it was at the turn of the century. The guides, such as Charles shown here, are all veteran miners with at least 10 years of experience. We traveled south from Charleston to go to this interesting exhibit, meeting up with friends Kyle and Rose (Kyle is a fellow recording engineer).
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The opening to Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine also had exhibits of
turn-of-the-century school classrooms. If I were in school back then,
this likely would have been my seat. Photograph by Lisa. |
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The teacher welcomes another student to school at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Photograph by Lisa. |
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A restored miner's shanty, a tiny little one-room bungalow where miners stayed while working at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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The Superintendent's House at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine in Beckley, West Virginia.
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Rose and Kyle at one of the restored houses at the coal camp at the
Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.
Kyle has been one of the main contributors to the forums at Musicplayer.com and Harmony-Central for years, and runs a web hosting company and a cassette restoration company in West Virginia. |
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Coal camp church at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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Here with Lisa after the coal camp tour at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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With rising housing costs, something had to happen. |
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Flowers at the Youth Museum at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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Turn of the century classroom at the Youth Museum at Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. |
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Lisa at C.L.A.M. Arts, exhibiting at the Appalachian Arts and Crafts Fair at Beckley, West Virginia. |
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Popping kettle corn at the Appalachian Arts and Crafts Fair at Beckley, West Virginia. |
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After stuffing ourselves with kettle corn and sausage sandwiches at the Appalachian Arts and Crafts Fair, we drove to the isolated ghost town of Stotesbury, West Virginia, a former coal camp in the late 1930s. Stotesbury is located on Winding Gulf Creek above Tams, and was originally operated by the E.E. White Coal Co. and was named for E.T. Stotesbury, president of Beaver Coal Co. at the time. Mining was in the Beckley seam. |
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I had previously written that this was the church in Stotesbury, but no, it's actually the church in Tams. The Coal Camp USA site reports that this is an African-American church called the New Salem Baptist Church, and was still occasionally used until around 2000. Mark from this MSN Discussion Group was kind enough to write in and correct me, reporting that this historic church is beginning to slide off its foundation.
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The door to the African-American church in Tams, West Virginia. |
West Virginia 2006
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