Beckley, West Virginia

We made a short drive (135 miles) from Buena Vista, VA to Beckley, WV today, and in so doing, have another state to add to our "states visited" map! This is the first new one since we were in Oklahoma in October, 2016 - we've been spending the last several months in places we've been before.

We had debated taking US 250 across from Staunton into West Virginia, but decided that (1) it was too warm to boondock in the Walmart parking lot in Staunton, so we headed to a Passport America park (50% discount) in Buena Vista, and (2) we didn't want to feel pushed by others wanting to travel faster on a 2-lane road, so we'd be better off on interstate where there were lanes for faster traffic to easily pass us.

While looking for a campground in this area, I discovered the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine (they have a campground too) so when we got here, we decided to head over to check it out. I decided that we could boondock at "Tamarack: The Best of West Virginia" so we parked there, unhooked the Jeep, and drove over to the Exhibition Coal Mine.

One of the features of the coal mine visit was a trip into the mine.

Our guide told us that miners would fill 10 of these 1-ton cars each day. If a miner could not keep up that pace, he did not remain employed.

10 tons, contrary to Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons" - but our guide definitely related that the miners "owed their soul to the company store".

Our guide indicated that he had worked in the mines for 41 years. Here he is demonstrating the use of a "chest auger" - except the part that is closest to us, a flattened curved bar (hard to see), would have been pressed up against the chest of the miner to provide the push into the oar. After drilling a hole, they would put explosive charges in to dislodge the coal.

Outside the mine, there were various buildings that had been part of different mining company facilities in West Virginia.

This was the kitchen in the supervisor's home - the sink cabinet reminded me of the one in the house where I grew up. The supervisor's house was 3600 square feet on 3 floors.

This was the living room in a representative "family worker" home - a 3 room house. The couch and chair reminded me of ones we had at home too!

Ours did not have the side tufting, but it was this green color!

Behind the worker's house was an outhouse.

As mentioned above, each of the buildings was brought to this site from a coal camp somewhere in the state, not necessarily from the coal camp at this location.

Front of the church

Church at the coal camp

Then we returned to Tamarack to see what they had inside the building where we were parked outside. There were many items made by local artisans. https://www.tamarackwv.com/about-us/history/

It is a bit cooler here - supposed to get down into the 60s with rain overnight... so we think we'll be ok without having electric hookups tonight.

Beckley, WV has turned out to be a nice place to stop!