Kaymoor One Mine

Kaymoor One Mine. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. Kaymoor was one of the largest coal mine complexes in the New River Gorge. You are two miles from Kaymoor One. Here workers mined over 16 million tons of coal and processed one million tons of coke between 1899 and 1962., Kaymoor was a company town, built by the Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia to produce fuel for its iron furnaces. Later sold to the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, coal and coke from Kaymoor was sold to national and international markets., The company controlled everything at Kaymoor, a site built from the ground up. It had the mine, coal processing operations, and a power station, along with stores, churches, schools, and houses for workers and their families. The costs of living expenses were deducted from each worker's pay before they received their wage (paid in company money-scrip). There were two towns, Kaymoor Top and Kaymoor Bottom. By 1923, 560 people lived here, 140 of whom were employees that worked in and outside the mine. A baseball team, theater, and tennis courts added to life in this community., As the nation's fuel needs changed and mining became less profitable, the company closed Kaymoor One in 1962. The story of this community and its industrial boom and bust can be explored at this site, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1990).