Mount Hope Coal History

Mount Hope Coal History. . With the birth of the Coal Industry, Mount Hope would play a very important role. , During Mount Hope's early history, settlers began removing coal from a seam on the side of a mountain. Commercial mining of coal had been in effect since the early 1810s, but this area was remote until the development of a rail system to move the coal from the hills. , In 1873, the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway provided this much needed transportation link. With the birth of the coal industry in the area during the early 1890s and the Loup Creek Branch train line completed in 1894, the tiny farming community of Mount Hope was transformed and incorporated as a town on June 1, 1895. , By 1910 the population had reached 1,200, and within a radius of four miles an additional 5,000 people resided. , By the mid 1910s to the mid 1930s Mount Hope had become the largest commercial center of the New River Coal Field with approximately 20 coal mines in the area. , From 1910-1935 many coal companies had their headquarters here, and in 1915 New River Coal Company moved their headquarters to Mount Hope. By the 1940s New River Coal Company grew to be one of the largest coal companies in southern West Virginia, In the mid-1960s a coal mine disaster occurred in Mount Hope, when there was an explosion at Siltex mine killing 7 miners. , The coal in this area is known as "Smokeless Coal", and one needs only to look around Mount Hope from the exposed coal seam and the entrance of Siltex Mine to the former New River Coal Company store and offices to see the presence of the coal industry here. Railway lines through town continue to provide much needed coal to the rest of the world.