Black Gold

Black Gold. New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. , Coal once powered factories, railroads, businesses, ships, and homes - and the New River Gorge was a major supplier of this "black gold" to the world. The topography of the gorge provided easy access to the seams of coal along its slopes, and the new railroad at its base, provided an easy way to ship the coal to the rest of the world., For more than 70 years, the coal boom in the gorge provided life and livelihood for thousands of people from all over the world - African Americans from the Deep South, immigrants from Europe, and native mountaineers alike. More than 70 mining towns sprung up every half a mile along this busy industrial corridor., By the 1950s, most of the coal mines in the New River Gorge began to shut down. But the legacies of the coal era - including battles for safe working conditions, child labor laws, and the right to unionize - still remain with us today., [Captions:] , Foreman inspecting a mine in the New River Gorge., Mines used "conveyors" and "tipples" to transport and sort coal., Miners at Nuttallburg, circa 1920. Like most towns in the New River Gorge, Nuttallburg miners were integrated inside of mines, but segregated outside the mines.