In 1902, U. S. Coal & Coke Company, a subsidiary of U. S. Steel Corporation, began its coal mining empire in McDowell County West Virginia and in what soon became known as Gary Hollow. In the late 1940's, development began on the coal company's new Gary No.6 "east side" mining complex because the No.6 "west side" mine that had been producing coal since 1904, was projected to be worked out by 1953. Mine maps indicate that the east mine began coal production in March 1949. The east mine was located on the opposite mountainside from the west mine. Its complex contained mine offices, bath/lamp house, mine machinery repair shop, powder house, dispatcher shanty and a tipple headhouse. When mine cars dumped coal into the headhouse, the larger chunks were broken up by a crusher and the coal was then conveyed down a long-enclosed beltline that was built across the state highway, over Sand Lick Creek and to a coal loadout alongside the railroad.
When coal production began at the No.6 east side mine in 1949, Gary Hollow was still operating under the name U. S. Coal & Coke Company. On June 14, 1952, their charter was dissolved, and U. S. Steel took over all mining operations. The No.6 east mine continued in operation until 1960 when it was shut down due to an economic recession. Although the east mine was idled, the mine equipment repair shop there reopened circa 1965 and was designated as an Equipment Overhaul Shop. In May 1966, I began working in that shop as a trainee mechanic/electrician. I was scheduled to be in a six-month training program to become a "section mechanic" at the Gary No.9 mine but after just three months in that training program, I was sent on to the Gary No.9 mine.
In 1967, the No.6 east mine resumed coal production and continued to operate until it was shut down in 1972 when its coal lease had been exhausted. Presumably, the No.6 east side Equipment Overhaul Shop was closed and abandoned at the same time. In 1981, that abandoned No.6 east side shop building was disassembled and moved to No.8 hollow above Elbert, West Virginia. Its new location was called Saw Pit. I went to work at Saw Pit in May 1981 in a small building being used as the temporary equipment overhaul shop. I witnessed the No.6 east side shop building being reassembled and connected to the old shop building. We moved into it a month later in June, and it was then designated as the Gary District Overhaul Shop.
The following year in 1982, most of the mines in Gary Hollow were idled, due to a slackening demand for coal and the Saw Pit Overhaul Shop was closed. In the summer of 1984, the Saw Pit Overhaul Shop was reopened, and I was called back to work and appointed evening shift maintenance foreman. In spring of 1986, shop superintendent Graham Talley, asked me to go to the tipple headhouse at the old No.6 east side mine site. He wanted me to remove some equipment from the coal crusher that had been setting there abandoned since 1972, and I did. In July 1986, the Saw Pit District Overhaul Shop was closed when U. S. Steel issued a directive to end mining operations. The decision to permanently shut down all mining operations in Gary Hollow had an immediate and profound economic affect. It was also the end of an historical era of coal camp life of living in coal company communities that had begun here in 1902. In 1992, I traveled back to the location of the Saw Pit Overhaul Shop and found the building being dismantled. I was told that another coal company had bought the building and was moving it to a new location.
In 1999, I made an exploratory trip back to the site of the Gary No.6 east mining complex. The tipple headhouse had been completely dismantled and was gone, leaving only the massive concrete foundation that it had been built on. When I began exploring the area, I found the No.6 east mine portal and the dispatchers shanty. Using a two-way radio that transmitted through the mine trolley wire, the dispatcher was tasked with directing all rail traffic moving in and out of the mine. When I ventured only a few feet into the mine, I found it had caved in. I stepped back and followed a former tram road a couple hundred feet around the hillside, and there stood a "powder house". Black powder was used as an explosive to shoot down coal in the early days and was stored here but in later years, dynamite was stored here. During the 1950's, this mining complex was booming with activity as "trips" of loaded coal cars exited the mine portal. One by one, they dumped their coal into the headhouse. The loud humming sound of electric motors could be heard, and the crunching of coal as it went through the crusher and was fed onto a beltline, carrying the coal to the loadout at the railroad. After visiting the former Gary No.6 east side mining complex that day, I left with many vivid memories of when I worked in the shop here in 1966. I remembered coworker's faces and names like Bill Hanks, Otis Snow and superintendent Walter Little, like it was only yesterday. Ahh....the memories!
