GARY NO.11 AT THORPE, WV - MINING COMMUNITY

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                                                                Gary No.11 Community - by: Buddy French
                                                                                                                       
      House construction for U. S. Coal & Coke Company's Gary No.11 mining community began circa 1907 in the center of Thorpe, West Virginia.  As the No.11 mine's need for more coal miners increased, so did the need for additional housing.  By circa 1918, new home construction had proceeded in a westwardly direction along each side of the Tug Fork River to a point where there were houses just a few hundred yards from joining the Gary No.10 community at Venus.  With large neighborhoods like Turnhole finding themselves at an outlying location from Thorpe, many residents referred to themselves as living at Turnhole or Number Eleven (No.11) rather than Thorpe.  Although the Gary No.11 mine was shut down in 1925, the No.11 community continued to prosper because miners living there were transferred to the Gary No. 4, 5, and 10 mines.          



                                    U. S. Coal & Coke Company Gary No.11 mine
                                                                                                          By Buddy French

      U. S. Coal & Coke Company opened its Gary No.11 mine at an outlying location of Thorpe, West Virginia and began coal production in 1907.  It operated in both the Pocahontas number three and number four coal seams.  The coal company was assigned just 364 acres in the number three seam that was five feet ten inches thick, while the number four seam was much larger at 1,732 acres and was five feet one inches high.  Of the twelve original mining operations in Gary Hollow, the Gary No.11 mine was one of only four that did not coke its coal on-site.  By the early 1920's, the No.11 mine had driven through the mountain and exited into a hollow on Saw Pit Fork.  There, a trestle was constructed across the hollow to the adjacent mountain where a new mine portal entered the coal seam.  Unfortunately, a "fault" was encountered on the back side of the No.11 mine's coal lease.  That was an area where the coal seam pinched down to perhaps just one foot thick.  Having a coal tipple that had become antiquated and not knowing the distance that would be encountered with that fault, U. S. Coal & Coke decided to shut down its Gary No.11 mine.
      In the late 1940's, the Gary No.6 East mine was opened, and a heading was driven to Saw Pit Hollow where the No.6 mine was connected with the back side of the old No.11 mine that had been shut down since 1925.  The remaining coal in the back side of No.11 mine lease was then brought out through the No.6 East mine.   

      In 1952, U. S. Steel dissolved its U. S. Coal & Coke Company charter and took over all mining operations in Gary Hollow.  Circa 1967, U. S. Steel decided to sublease the remaining coal in its Gary No.11 mine at Thorpe, to the Ridge Land Company.  The Ridge Land Company continued mining the original No.11 four seam coal into the 1980's.


Many thanks to Alex Schust and his book "Gary Hollow" where more information can be found pertaining to Gary No.11 and its mining history.        

 


                          
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