Gary No.14 Mine at Munson, West Virginia
By Buddy French
The United States Coal & Coke Company began work on opening its Gary No.14 mining operation in McDowell County West Virginia in1946. While most of the original U. S. Coal & Coke mines and their communities in Gary Hollow joined each other, the No.14 mine did not. It was in a remote area twelve miles from the company headquarters in Gary, West Virginia. An access road and a new railroad had to be built to the new site. The No.14 mines produced coal from both the No.3 and No.4 Pocahontas coal seams. At its peak of operation in 1954, there were 632 employees at the No.14 operation. In 1986, the mines there were shut down when U. S. Steel discontinued all Gary Hollow mining operations. In its thirty-eight-year history, the No.14 mine produced 37,059,612 tons of high-grade metallurgical coal.
Housing construction for the coal camp community there also began in 1946. It was a small community and the last new coal camp to be built in McDowell County. It was named Munson, for John Gephart Munson. He was the Vice President of United States Steel Corporation, the parent company of the U. S. Coal & Coke Company. Because of its remoteness, being twelve miles from the company headquarters in Gary, the community was built primarily for management and supervisory personnel. The Munson homes did not have the typical looking coal camp appearance. The land in the community was beautifully landscaped, and the twenty-one houses were of a modern design, containing six rooms with a bathroom. Munson had two Clubhouses (boarding houses) and a small elementary school. In 1954, Munson had a population of ninety-two residents.
Today, the community of Munson no longer exists, nor does the No.14 mine site, accompanying buildings or company store. When U. S. Steel shut down their mining operations there in 1986, everything was torn down. The overburden from the mountaintop removal process to gain access to other seams of coal, was pushed over into the valleys and covered the No.14 mine site and where its community once was.
Many thanks to Alex Schust and his book "Gary Hollow" where much more information can be found on the history of Munson, West Virginia and the mines there.
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