East Lynn is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Wayne 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, located along the banks of

Twelvepole Creek Twelvepole Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 26, 2011 river located in Wayne County, West Virginia. It is part of the Mississippi River watershed, by way of ...

, approximately eight miles south of the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

, Wayne. It was also known as Mouth of Little Lynn. East Lynn is a part of the Huntington-Ashland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 287,702. New definitions from February 28, 2013 placed the population at 363,000.

History

East Lynn began as a small merchant community known as Twin Creek but eventually grew as a

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 1868, the Adkins Mills Post Office was established and the community was known as Adkins Mills. The Big Sandy, East Lynn & Guyan Railroad was formed in 1903 and merged with the

Norfolk and Western 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 ...

in 1908. Also in 1908, East Lynn was incorporated. East Lynn continued to grow in the 1910s and at various times had three movie theaters, doctors, lawyers, and a detective agency. In the late 1910s, the residents decided to abandon the town's charter, and the town became unincorporated once again. Much of the town was destroyed by fire in November 1919. East Lynn was rebuilt; however, it burned once again in February 1955. The

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s shut down in the 1960s, and the railroad left, leaving the town dilapidated. The

East Lynn Lake East Lynn Lake is a reservoir on the East Fork Twelvepole Creek in Wayne County, West Virginia. The lake is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District, as part of a series of flood control projects for the Ohio River bas ...

was created in the 1960s by the Army Corps of Engineers. Rockspring Development reopened a mine near East Lynn on Camp Creek, but it has not created any new growth for the town itself.

Demographics

East Lynn is a part of the Huntington- Ashland, WV- KY- OH,

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

(MSA). As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 288,649.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wayne County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Coal towns in West Virginia