Kay Moor, also known as Kaymoor, is the site of an abandoned

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 ...

, coal-processing plant, and

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 ...

near

Fayetteville, West Virginia Fayetteville is a town in and the county seat of Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 2,892 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville was listed as one of the 2006 "Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America" by Budget Travel Maga ...

. The town site is located in the

New River Gorge The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is a unit of the United States National Park Service (NPS) designed to protect and maintain the New River Gorge in southern West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains. Established in 1978 as a nat ...

at Kaymoor Bottom (). It is linked to the mine portal above on Sewell Bench () in the wall of the Gorge by conveyors. The mine exploited the

New River Coalfield The New River Coalfield is located in northeastern Raleigh County and southern Fayette County, West Virginia. Commercial mining of coal began in the 1870s and thrived into the 20th century. The coal in this field is a low volatile coal, known as " ...

's Sewell Seam of "smokeless" low-volatile

bituminous coal Bituminous coal, or black coal, is a type of coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen or asphalt. Its coloration can be black or sometimes dark brown; often there are well-defined bands of bright and dull material within the seams. It ...

, while the town site was accessible only by the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond ...

's mainline in the gorge. The last portion of the Kay Moor complex, Kaymoor Top () was located at the gorge rim and served as the terminus for the mountain haulage.

History

The mine property was purchased in 1873 by

Abiel Abbot Low Abiel Abbot Low (February 7, 1811 – January 7, 1893) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, trader and philanthropist who gained most of his fortune from the China trade, importing teas, porcelains, and silk, and building and operating a ...

, managing director of the Low Moor Iron Company in

Low Moor, Virginia Low Moor is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alleghany County, Virginia. The population was 258 at the 2010 census. History Low Moor was the birthplace of World War II Medal of Honor recipient Jimmie Monteith, for whom Camp Monteith, located ...

, which was to be the mine's chief client. The property was kept in reserve until 1899, when the Kay Moor mine was opened to supply coal and coke to the company's

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

s. In 1925, the mine was sold to the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Berwind-White Corporation of Philadelphia. The town was named for James Kay, a Low Moor Iron Company employee, who was in charge of building the town. Fifty houses were built in 1901, followed by 45 in 1902 and 17 in 1905. A suburb, called New Camp, was built in 1918-1919 with another 19-24 houses, and represents the only extant town site remaining. Kay Moor town's public facilities were spartan, with no churches, saloons, banks, or town hall, only pairs of segregated schools at top and bottom, company stores, a pool hall and a ball field. By 1952, Kaymoor Bottom had been abandoned, and in 1960, most of its structures were destroyed by fire. The mine was connected to the town by a single-track incline, which lifted workers and equipment up a slope at a 30° incline. Coal was moved along a similar double-track incline, which lowered coal to the processing plant and the coke ovens, with the cars or monitors moving in opposite directions and partially counterbalancing each other. Both inclines operated until 1962. Initial operations included 120 coking ovens, which were increased to 202 ovens during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. All of the beehive ovens closed in the 1930s, as they had become obsolete. Kay Moor headhouse2

The mine itself was a

room and pillar Room and pillar or pillar and stall is a variant of breast stoping. It is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane, creating horizontal arrays of rooms and pillars. To do this, "rooms" of ore are dug out w ...

mine that was first worked with

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

-drawn railcars. Locomotives later supplanted the mules.

Kay Moor today

The site is now extensively overgrown and obscured by foliage. Structures and machinery have deteriorated due to the corrosive interaction of coal dust and rainwater, while the bench level was salvaged in 1980-81. Despite this, the site retains significant amounts of mining machinery and is considered one of the most complete examples of an integrated coal mine and company town in West Virginia. The entire Kay Moor site is now located within the boundaries of

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is a unit of the United States National Park Service (NPS) designed to protect and maintain the New River Gorge in southern West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains. Established in 1978 as a nat ...

Visiting Kay Moor

Kaymoor Top is accessible from Kaymoor No. 1 Road (County Route 9/2). At Kaymoor Top, a trailhead for the Kaymoor Miners Trail provides the most direct access to the Kaymoor Mine level (via stairs and switchbacks), and then to Kaymoor Bottom via stairs. The Kaymoor Mine level is also accessible via the long, relatively flat, Kaymoor Trail; a trailhead is located on County Route 82.

References

External links

*
Kaymoor
at New River Gorge National River

at coalcampusa.com {{authority control Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Geography of Fayette County, West Virginia Ghost towns in West Virginia Company towns in West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve Coal mines in the United States Buildings and structures in Fayette County, West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Fayette County, West Virginia Historic districts in Fayette County, West Virginia National Coal Heritage Area New River Coalfield Historic American Engineering Record in West Virginia Coal towns in West Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Energy infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia

History

Kay Moor today

Visiting Kay Moor

See also

References

External links