Ashford is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and once-active

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 reside ...

in Boone County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States. Ashford was established as a coal camp and grew into a thriving mining community.

History

It was established by the Crawford and Ashby land company. A former

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

town, Ashford includes all of the communities in the 25009 zip code from the top of Lens Creek Mountain to the bridge crossing Coal River, up the river (south) toward Costa and down the river (north) to Emmons and Lower White Oak. Rumble was a separate coal camp located within the area known as Ashford, but never had its own post office although there was an elementary school there that burned around 1960. What was known as Rumble starts near Casey Fork Hollow and continues along County Route 1 to just past the new Ashford-Rumble School. From the Ashford bridge you can travel to Lower White Oak and Emmons (on the Boone County side) and to Dartmont (on the opposite side). Ashford Hill Road follows the east side of Big Coal River and is also considered part of Ashford. Ashford Hill Road ends at Brier Branch. The Ashford post office was destroyed by fire in 2005, and was never reopened. In August 2008, the brand new Ashford bridge opened to the public. The new bridge was named as a memorial to Willis W. Elkins, a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

submarine crewman and long-time educator who was born about 100 yards from where the new bridge stands. The original bridge, constructed in 1923, was demolished on August 26, 2008. One of the locks of the old navigation system was located in Ashford where Lower White Oak Creek enters Big Coal River. This system of locks allowed steamboats to travel up the Big Coal River as far as Peytona. The heyday of the navigation system was in the 1850s. The Civil War interrupted traffic. Soon after the War the system was repaired, but was often rendered unusable due to floods. The coming of the C & O railroad signaled the end of the river transportation system, but remnants of some of the locks can still be seen during low water periods.

Education

There is one school in Ashford that is Ashford-Rumble Elementary School.

Notable people

* Josh Holstein, member of the

West Virginia House of Delegates The West Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the West Virginia Legislature in West Virginia. Only three states—Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia—refer to their lower house as the House of Delegates. Organization Regular se ...

References

Unincorporated communities in Boone County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia Charleston, West Virginia metropolitan area Coal towns in West Virginia {{BooneCountyWV-geo-stub