Earlier this year, I revisited the Lonaconing Silk Mill, a significant historical site as one of the last intact silk mills in the United States. This mill, operated by the Klotz Throwing Company and General Textile Mills Company, was in active use from 1901 until its closure in 1957.
Category: Appalachia
If you are traveling along the West Virginia Turnpike, you may have noticed the portals to Memorial Tunnel.
Today, Briceville, Tennessee, appears tranquil, but it played a pivotal role in the Coal Mine Wars of 1891-92.
Positioned prominently along Interstate 75 in Campbell County, Tennessee, two rusting Ferris wheels and a replica Titan rocket continue to draw the attention of drivers passing by.
The New Salem Baptist Church stands as the sole remaining structure in the now-deserted town of Tams, West Virginia.
An abandoned railroad bridge over the Levisa Fork in Pike County, Kentucky seemed a little out of place.
Red Ash, established in 1891 by the Red Ash Coal & Coke Company, was a significant coal camp located along the New River in West Virginia.
Snaking through the southern reaches of Floyd County, Kentucky is the remains of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Long Fork Subdivision that connected to some of the most prosperous coal mines in the state.
In my travels through West Virginia, I frequently encounter abandoned roadside churches, relics of a bygone era.
Nestled along a quiet side road in the heart of Appalachia, there lies a relic of times long past, a two-story house that whispers stories of the bygone era.
My friend Ben and I were excited to explore West Virginia, aiming to visit locations featured in the Fallout 76 video game. Despite Ben’s tight schedule, we hoped to see key sites like the New River Gorge, Seneca Rocks, Mollohan Mill, and Dolly Sods. However, the extensive driving distances and winding mountain roads required us to condense our plans.
The mountains and hollers of West Virginia are dotted with the remnants of communities past, reminders of earlier times when gossip was exchanged at post offices, when general stores were locally owned, when education was tailored, and when neighbors knew their neighbors. Braxton County is no exception, with the region’s heyday coming in the early parts of the 20th century when employment was mostly centered around extractive industries: coal mining, timbering, and natural gas production. Its population peaked decades ago with nearly 24,000 residents. Today, just a few small cities call this mostly rural county over 12,000 home: Sutton, Gassaway, Burnsville, and Flatwoods, primarily nestled along the Elk River and Interstate 79. With 516 square miles to explore, you don’t have to travel far to get away from the hubbub of activity, and that’s where you encounter Wilsie. Located at the juncture of two branches of Dry Fork, not much remains other than an old general store and an old post office that closed in mid-2005, surrounded by the remnants of an old school and several shuttered houses. Interestingly, the false front of the general store was cut off and tagged with the name of the store and a reminder that it was “closed for remodeling.” It doesn’t appear that any work has been completed on the buildings which are in a state of severe disrepair. In the vicinity of Wilsie is a long-abandoned two classroom school, one of hundreds that dotted the hollers and hilltops of the state. Simple…
The Amanda Furnace and BOF at the former Armco/AK Steel Ashland Works were simultaneously imploded at 8:30 AM this morning. Steelmaking operations were idled on December 15, 2015, and the plant was closed for good by November 2019. The Hanging Rock Iron Region in southern Ohio, northeastern Kentucky, and western West Virginia produced iron between 1818 and 1916, which helped build armaments for the Civil War, hulls for the Monitor and Merrimac ships, kettles and pots, tools, and wagon wheels. It was predicted that iron ore in the Hanging Rock Iron Region would last for 2,700 years but most of the iron seams had been depleted by the 1900s. Traditional blast furnaces, a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce pig iron, continued to be built until 1963 when the Amanda opened at Armco’s Ashland Works. The crown jewel of the steelmaking industry, it was the largest of its type in the world. Ashland Works at its peak was the second-largest facility by Armco. It boasted the world’s first continuous sheet rolling mill, which was later replaced with a hot-strip mill in 1953. A cold reduction mill, strip pickler, light gauge Zincgrip line, and a heavy gauge Zincgrip line were completed in 1954. Armco had developed the Zincgrip process in 1936 by offering the first zinc-coated (and later aluminum-coated) coils that were far superior to older processes. The open-hearth furnaces were shut down in 1969, which coincided with the start-up of the basic oxygen furnace complex (BOF). But…
The Irish Corner district of Greenbrier County, West Virginia is dominated by large family farms, the remains of early mills and industries, country churches, and stately residences. Initially isolated by rough terrain and a lack of good roads, the rural setting is seeing an uptick in residential development that could potentially change the character of the region. Many years ago, I visited the Irish Corner region and documented some of the churches and houses I came across while randomly driving down the back roads. More recently, I trekked through the area with my girlfriend to see what’s changed. We started the morning making an impromptu visit to the Prince train station as the Amtrak Cardinal line made a brief stop to allow for the departure of a few passengers. Constructed in 1946 for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, the Art Moderne depot was designed by the Garfield, Harris, Robinson & Schafer architectural firm of Cleveland. It features Streamline Moderne stainless steel lettering spelling out Prince on the exterior, and terrazzo flooring inside with an embedded “Chessie” kitten logo. Up the hill from the Prince train station along Route 41 is the ironic Laurel Lodge No. 104 with its iconic lettering set in blond brick. What I assumed was an older building was actually built in 1964 to replace a burned Masonic facility in Lawton. Interestingly, furnishings and floorings for the new building came from the Thurmond Lodge in Thurmond, while brick, roofing materials, and slate came from the old McKendree Hospital. We…
Located in rural Monroe County, West Virginia is Sinks Grove, named for the many sinkholes throughout the area. It could be mistaken for just another rural community that is slowly disappearing into the landscape, but I found it fascinating for the variety of abandoned and historic buildings that still existed. The most visually interesting out of all of them is the shuttered Bob & Bob Speleo General Store with its handpainted sign that is adorned with the faded motto “Cavers Serving Cavers.” Constructed circa 1910, it was operated as a general store and gasoline station by numerous proprietors including Roy and Edna Burwelll between 1959/60 and 1974. The building was then purchased by Bob Liebman who operated “Bob & Bob,” a spelunking supply business. Liebman was born in 1942 in Los Angeles, California, growing up with an interest in trains, bowling, caves, and caving. 1 In 1968, while attending San Jose State College, he went on his first caving trip to Soldiers Cave with a club named the “Alpiners.” The club provided helmets and carbide lamps. Hooked on underground exploration, Liebman joined the Southern California Grotto and then the National Speleological Society in 1969. In 1970, Liebman met Bob Addis at the So Cal Grotto. While traveling down the coast of Oregon after attending a caving convention in White Salmon, Washington, the pair stopped at a hardware store looking for carbide lamps which were becoming scarce. 1 Borrowing money from Addis, Liebman purchased all of the lamps and the pair…
The centerpiece of the annual Ceredo-Kenova AutumnFest in Kenova, West Virginia is the famous Pumpkin House.
I’ve always been curious about this cool neon sign on the side of some concrete silos in Clarksburg, West Virginia.