Coalwood is an unincorporated

coal town A coal town, also known as a coal camp or patch, is a type of company town or mining community established by the employer, a mining company, which imports workers to the site to work the mineral find. The company develops it and provides residen ...

in McDowell County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, United States. The coal mine in Coalwood reached its peak in the 1950s and ceased production on October 1, 1986. As of the 1990 census—the last time the town was counted separately—the population was 900. The town is the setting of Homer Hickam's best-selling memoir ''

Rocket Boys ''October Sky '' is the first memoir in a series of four, by American engineer Homer Hickam, Homer Hickam Jr. originally published in 1998 as ''Rocket Boys''. Later editions were published under the title ''October Sky'' as a tie-in to the 1999 ...

'', as well as its film adaptation, ''

October Sky ''October Sky'' is a 1999 American biographical drama film directed by Joe Johnston and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Chris Owen, and Laura Dern. The screenplay by Lewis Colick, based on the memoir of the same name, tells the true ...

''.

History

Coalwood was founded by

George Lafayette Carter George Lafayette Carter (1857–1936) was an American entrepreneur known as "the empire builder of southwest Virginia." His ventures led to the development and modernization of many parts of the southern Appalachian region during the late 19th and ...

in 1905. He came on the back of a mule and eventually found rich seams of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, and bought 20,000 acres (80 km). He constructed a mine, calling it the

Carter Coal Company ''Carter v. Carter Coal Company'', 298 U.S. 238 (1936), is a United States Supreme Court decision interpreting the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, which permits the United States Congress to "regulate Commerce... among the seve ...

and built offices, houses, a schoolhouse, the Carter Coal Company Store, a church and more. Carter hired a dentist and doctor to provide service to his miners. In 1922, Carter sold the mine and properties within the town to the

Consolidation Coal Company Consolidation may refer to: In science and technology * Consolidation (computing), the act of linkage editing in computing * Memory consolidation, the process in the brain by which recent memories are crystallised into long-term memory * Pulmonar ...

. The company rebuilt the community and recruited new employees to work in the mines, but Carter regained the company when Consolidation Coal defaulted on its payments in 1933. Carter died in 1936, and the company was then taken over by his son James who sold it in 1947 to a group of industrialists who changed the company name to the Olga Coal Company. In 1956, the Coalwood mine was connected underground to the nearby

Caretta The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

mine which was also owned by Olga. In 1959, Olga ceased bringing coal to the surface via Coalwood which prompted the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

to begin pulling up the tracks leading to and from Coalwood. The Coalwood-Caretta mine continued to be productive throughout most of the 20th century, producing on average one million tons annually until the mine was finally closed. Coalwood Community Church

At its peak, Coalwood had a population of over 2,000. In 1980, the Olga Coal Company was bought by the LTV Corporation which closed Coalwood's mine in 1986. As of 2019 much of Coalwood sits abandoned including Big Creek High School where The Rocket Boys went. The buildings of the town still stand, although time and the elements have taken their toll. A primary school has been built at the former site of Big Creek High School.

October Sky Festival

Once a year, in October, Coalwood hosted an ''

'' festival in honor of the accomplishments of the ''

''. Many scientists and astronauts attended and Homer Hickam always made an appearance. The 2007 festival also represented the 50th anniversary of

Sputnik Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...

, the first artificial

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

to go into orbit around the earth. Commemorating both events, an actor from the movie ''October Sky'', Scott Miles, attended the festival to sign autographs. On February 7, 2012, the Cape Coalwood Restoration Association announced that the October 2011 festival, the 13th October Sky Festival, had been the last October Sky Festival. After the cancellation of the Rocket Boys/October Sky Festival was announced, Hickam was approached by a group of concerned Raleigh County citizens to inquire to the possibility of bringing the festival to their city. After weeks of conversations between the parties it was agreed that the 2012 Rocket Boys/October Sky Festival would be held in Beckley with many events taking place on the grounds of the Exhibition Coal Mine at New River Park on October 5–7. The Rocket Boys Festival remained an annual event in Beckley from 2012 to 2019, which was the last festival in Beckley. The 2020 festival was cancelled due to COVID-19. Coalwood Company Store

FEMA - 21505 - Photograph by Bob McMillan taken on 05-18-2002 in West Virginia

References

External links

Coalwood, West Virginia
at Coal Camp
Coalwood MemoriesHomer Hickam Online
{{Coord, 37, 23, 14, N, 81, 39, 09, W, display=title, name=Coalwood, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in McDowell County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Mining communities in West Virginia Company towns in West Virginia Coal towns in West Virginia