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. 

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.