Wharton 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
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 ...
on the Pond Fork River in
Boone County in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
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 ...
. Wharton lies along
West Virginia Route 85
West Virginia Route 85 is a north–south state highway in southern West Virginia. The southern terminus of the route is at West Virginia Route 10
West Virginia Route 10 is a north–south route from Cabell County, West Virginia, Cabel ...
. Wharton was named for Joseph Wharton, a large landowner from
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
.
Mining accident
On February 1, 2006, a miner was killed at Long Branch Energy's #18 mine in Wharton when a wall support popped loose. This fatality along with another one in a separate incident in
Uneeda, also in Boone County, caused
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to call for a "stand-down on mine safety" at West Virginia's mines.
Unincorporated communities in Boone County, West Virginia
Coal towns in West Virginia
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