SWITCHBACK, WV COAL MINING COMPLEX
                   Appalachian Power Company : By Buddy French
                                                                                                  
The Appalachian Power Company had its beginnings at Switchback, West Virginia.  Yes, its first coal fired electric power plant is the same one we see on the hillside today in the coal camp community of Switchback that is now an abandoned substation.  

When the Appalachian Power Company was formed, it bought the Switchback power plant in June 1911 that belonged to the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries coal company.  That coal company continued to supply coal to the power plant from its Delta mine portal behind the present-day James Elwood Jones mansion near the plant.  A mine tram road led directly from the mine portal to the power plant.  The Pocahontas Collieries Company name was changed to Pocahontas Fuel Company in 1917, and it was later bought out by Consolidation Coal Company which is now Consol Energy. 

At the same time this plant was purchased in 1911, Appalachian Power Company began an ambitious construction project building a series of hydroelectric dams on New River in Virginia.  When those dams began producing electricity in late 1912, the Switchback power plant was put on standby as a backup power source in case of interruptions to its hydroelectric transmission lines into McDowell County.

Switchback, WV power plant - 1920.

The interior of the Appalachian Power Company Switchback substation from the Abandoned Web Site.

Appalachain Power Company 1979 letter found in power house ruins.

The Pocahontas Fuel Company Store ( from another site) was a historic Pocahontas Fuel Company company store building located at Switchback, McDowell County, West Virginia. It was designed by architect Alexandra Blount Mchood and built in 1917. It was a two-story brick building with a one-story wing that housed the business office. It had a flat roof, sat on a high stone foundation, and featured Neoclassical detailing. It had a brick cornice with a concrete parapet and a concrete entablature with dentils. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

The Pocahontas Fuel Company store in Switchback, McDowell County, West Virginia, was a historic company store built before 1903. Though the building shell was still intact in the early 1990s, it has since become dilapidated and may be demolished. It was listed on the National Register of The building is situated on U.S. Route 52 at Switchback, West Virginia.  The two-story, wood-frame building was originally built by the Norfolk Coal and Coke Company before 1903. It features a distinctive pyramidal roof on one corner and was constructed on a strong stone foundation. Due to years of abandonment, the building has suffered significant damage. A 1992 National Register registration form noted that it was "littered with graffiti, all windows are missing, and its parapet is crumbling." This building is one of the few remaining intact examples of a wood-frame company store in southern West Virginia.Company stores like the one in Switchback were the central economic hub of coal towns. They provided miners and their families with essential goods and services.

 

Enhanced Photographs Provided By:Buddy French

 

SWITCHBACK & MAYBURY PHOTOGRAPHS - FROM ANOTHER SITE

ADDITIONAL MINING COMMUNITIES INDEX

SWITCHBACK, WV - JAMES EARL JONES MANSION TRADGEY - FROM DIZZY HARRIS SITE

MASTER INDEX FILE