Nora 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 ...

in Dickenson County in the southern U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. In the 2000 US census, its population is listed as 566. Nora is situated along the

McClure River The McClure River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 13, 2011 tributary of the Russell Fork in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Dickenson County in th ...

. Coal mining has always been the primary business for the community and county. However, in recent years natural gas production has increased sharply because it has become possible to extract gas from the underlying Huron Shale formation. The Huron Shale deposit in this part of Virginia is called the Nora Field.

History

The site of what is now Nora was originally called "Mouth of Open Fork", and in 1882 it was briefly the county seat of the newly formed Dickenson County. In 1904, a post office was built at Mouth of Open Fork, and the first postmaster, W. A. Dorton, arranged for the community and post office to be named for his wife Nora.Tennis, Joe
Virginia Crossroads: An Almanac of Place Names and Places to See
, 2004, The

Clinchfield Railroad The Clinchfield Railroad was an operating and holding company for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway . The line ran from the coalfields of Virginia and Elkhorn City, Kentucky, to the textile mills of South Carolina. The 35-mile segmen ...

, which was built to haul coal from the area, passes through Nora. Construction of the railroad was completed in 1915, when the last track was laid near Nora. Up through the 1960s, Nora was known locally as "Tiger Town", because the tiny village had three taverns, resulting in frequent alcohol-induced brawls. In 1977, the McClure River flooded and destroyed much of Nora.

Notable people

People associated with Nora include: * Margaret Binns (1884-1968). A native of

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and a graduate of Vassar, she came to Nora in 1915 on the first train to reach the town. She worked for 50 years as deaconess of the small Episcopal Church in Nora. Her home was a gathering place and recreation center for the children of the town. * Ralph Stanley, bluegrass musician, grew up in the nearby town of McClure, and he attended high school at Nora. * Kathleen Counts (1932 - 1983). Counts was a coal miner from Nora. In 1983 she was killed, along with six others, in a mine explosion at McClure. She is believed to be the first woman miner killed in the US. * Trazel Silvers was a basketball player at Ervinton High School, and he later played professionally, first for the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

, and then for several teams in Europe.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Virginia Unincorporated communities in Dickenson County, Virginia