U. S. Coal & Coke Company, Thorpe, Gary No . 4 Mine. By: Buddy French
Thorpe, West Virginia : By Buddy French
In 1902, the opening of multiple U. S. Coal & Coke Company mines and the construction of their supporting communities was well underway in McDowell County West Virginia. By 1904, the coal company had opened its No.4 mine, which was one of the twelve coal mining operations that would soon make up what was to become known as Gary Hollow. As with all of these mining operations, construction of a supporting community with homes for coal miners and their families near the No.4 mining complex was rapidly being developed. This coal camp community was originally given the name Jared but was changed to Thorpe when the post office opened there in 1906. Thorpe soon became a small "community town" with a large company store where your author once worked, a restaurant, five churches, a white and negro grade school, a Clubhouse (miners boarding house) and a Community Center that contained a barber shop, pool hall and a movie theatre. Many thanks to Alex Schust who published his book "Gary Hollow", where this and much more information on Thorpe can be found.
The U. S. Coal & Coke Company, a subsidiary company of United Stated Steel Corporation, opened its Gary No.4 mining operation in Harmon Branch Hollow in McDowell County West Virginia in 1904. The center of its supporting community was located at the mouth of the hollow and was soon named Thrope. The No.4 mine was originally allotted 1,221 acres of coal in the Pocahontas No.3 coal seam that measured six feet four inches in thickness. The mining complex was built primarily for mining and coking coal in the 209 coke ovens that were constructed near the coal tipple. In 1921, the coal coking process at No.4 ceased operations and the coal was shipped directly to the steel mills where the coal coking process had begun taking place. In 1940, the No.4 mine was shut down and the coal tipple torn down. The coal company's reason for closing the mine was at least partly due to what was referred to as a "middleman" embedded in the coal seam that was approximately one foot thick. A "middleman" is a layer of rock or slate in the coal seam that's called "bone", and having to remove it in the coal tipple added additional cost to mining the coal.
In 1969, U. S. Steel reopened the No.4 mine at Thrope after it had been idled for twenty-nine years. The Coal Preparation Plant located at Alpheus, could now more economically remove bone and slate from the coal. In 1985, your author was working at U. S. Steel's District Equipment Rebuild Shop and was given a tour of the No.4 mine and observed the one-foot thick "middleman" that was embedded in the center of the coal seam. Just one year later in 1986, U. S. Steel shut down and abandoned all mining operations in Gary Hollow that had been in operation since 1902.
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Photographs provided by: Buddy French THORPE , WV ( GARY NO.4 ) COMMUNITY "CONTINUED" |
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