Gary Hollow: By Buddy French

In 1901, the newly formed U. S. Steel Corporation began a huge expansion into the industries necessary to support its steel making business.  They included shipping, railroads, iron ore mining and coal mining.  In January 1902, U. S. Steel created a subsidiary company, the U. S. Coal & Coke Company, to supply coal for its steel mills.  Located in McDowell County West Virginia, the U. S. Coal & Coke Company took out a massive 50,000-acre coal lease in the famed Pocahontas No.3 coal seam.  The area quickly became known as Gary Hollow, and the construction of twelve separate coal mines and supporting communities began on a colossal scale.  Along with opening a coal mine and tipple in each community, the infrastructure for water and electricity had to be put in place.  Hundreds and perhaps as many as a thousand workers began constructing an electric grid, digging water wells, building coke ovens, coal tipples, recreational facilities, company stores and miners' homes.  Each coal mine was given a number to identify it, and its community was given a name.  Eleven of the twelve communities were lined up end to end and when you left one community you immediately entered another one.

There were eight company stores, two junior high schools, two senior high schools, nine grade schools, three bowling alleys, five restaurants, three movie theatres and no fewer than twenty-eight churches of different denominations.  Gary Hollow soon became billed as the largest coal camp in the world with a population of 15,000 residents.