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.   

Most of the homes in Gary No.3 or what was called Main Gary, are still there and occupied.  The No.3 big clubhouse, company store, power plant and coal tipple are gone.  The farther you go up the hollow into the adjoining Gary coal camp ccommunities, like Thorpe (No.4), Leslie (No.5), Ream (No.6), No.7, No.8 and No.9, No.10, Many of those houses ano longer remain standing.

There were several different neighborhood communities in Main Gary ( No. 3 ) , with names like Red Cross Street, Church Street, Highland Avenue, Lovers Lane, Hunk Hill, Pinch Back and Gary Bottom.

The coals of the Pocahontas coalfield developed a good reputation, and by 1903, U.S. Steel had set up a subsidiary named U.S. Coal and Coke to mine coal in central McDowell County. The operations centered around Gary, with numbered coal mines/camps surrounding the central coal town of Gary like coal town suburbs. Wilcoe was Gary No. 1, Ream was Gary No. 6, Elbert was Gary No.8, and Venus was Gary No. 10 and Thorpe was No.11.