NEW RIVER GORGE Historic Resource Study Kay Moor

1. Name of Property

historic name: Kay Moor: Kay Moor No. 1 Coal Mine
other names/site number: Kaymoor

2. Location

city, town: Fayetteville
state: West Virginia
county: Fayette

3. Classification

Ownership of Property: public-Federal
Category of Property: district

Number of Resources within Property

Contributing	Noncontributing
9		buildings
1		sites
31	1	structures
1		objects
42	1	Total

Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register N/A

4. State/Federal Agency Certification

5. National Park Service Certification

6. Function or Use

Historic Functions (enter categories from instructions)	Current Functions (enter categories from instructions)
Industry/Processing/Extraction	not in use
extractive facility	not in use
processing facility	not in use
company town	not in use

7. Description

Architectural Classification (enter categories from instructions)
Other: mining structures, town site

Materials (enter categories from instructions)
foundation: Stone
walls: Stone, Metal (tin, iron)
roof: Metal (tin)
other: Concrete

Describe present and historic physical appearance.

Kay Moor consists of an abandoned coal mine, associated extractive and processing machinery, and the site of the accompanying coal town. The town was in two locations, one on top of the New River Gorge, the other alongside the New River at the bottom of the gorge. Kay Moor's major physical characteristics include extant mining machinery, buildings and other features located along the Sewell Bench, 560 ft. vertical above New River. These include openings in the gorge wall for electrical service and ventilation, fan houses, headhouse, three main drift openings, car repair shop, lamp house, superintendent's office, stairway to Kay Moor Top, mountain haulage, powder house, and electrical repair shop. Leading down the gorge wall 1,000 ft. over a 30 degree slope to the railroad track and river level are monitors, conveyor, processing plant, power house, and two batteries of coke ovens at the bottom. Only the shell of one gutted and one collapsed house, and foundations remain of the Kay Moor Bottom town site, located next to both the river and coke ovens.

The integrity of the mine site and machinery proper is good in terms of the mine's relatively undisturbed state, protected by its isolated location within the New River Gorge. Individual structures are disintegrating due to weather and vegetation. Caustic deterioration of wood and metal is occurring because of rainwater mixing with the coal dust in the structures and on the ground. It is difficult to envision the mass and scale of the mine and its auxiliary buildings because of the foliage overgrowth, but close inspection does reveal the technological nature of the materials and workmanship involved with mining and processing of the Sewell Seam "smokeless" coal. Even though only a few structures remain at the Kay Moor Bottom townsite, including the company store ruins, the site itself provides the feeling of a company town whose access to the outside world lay only in the nearby Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad tracks. Many industrial artifacts are strewn about the mine site and side of the gorge wall; these have historical value in and of themselves, but are not counted as contributing for the purposes of this nomination.

THE MINE

Kay Moor Coal Mine No. 1 operated from 1900 until 1962. It was located within the New River Gorge, in the New River coalfields, famous for low volatile coal known as "smokeless" coal. The mine entry was made into the Sewell Seam, 560 ft. above the floor of the gorge and the southside branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad which ran along New River. Abiel Abbott Low, a founder of The Low Moor Iron Company of Low Moor, Virginia, purchased the property just after the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad's entry into the New River Gorge in 1873. The Low Moor Iron Company kept the coal property in reserve until 1899, when it opened the Kay Moor coal mine as a source of supply of coal and coke to fuel the company's blast furnaces. The first shipment of coal was made in 1900. This company sold the Kay Moor complex in 1925 when the merchant pig iron industry waned and beehive coke ovens fell into disuse. Kay Moor was sold to the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, a subsidiary of Berwind-White Corporation of Philadelphia.¹

Miners, equipment and townspeople were transported from the company towns located at the top and bottom of the gorge by a mountain haulage, a single track incline with a steam powered cable hoisting drum. Coal was lowered to the processing plant and beehive coke ovens located near the railroad tracks at the bottom of the gorge. This was a two-track gravity incline. Both of these systems operated, with few modifications, from 1900 until 1962.²

Kay Moor miners worked the mine in small rooms, known as the "room and pillar" system, to pick and blast the Sewell Seam coal face. They loaded the coal into cars, which were hauled to the main locomotive track and transported out of the mine. Mules were used at first to pull the cars, but were soon replaced by locomotives. Main haulage locomotives picked up the coal cars and pulled them to the surface. The mine cars were disconnected from the locomotive, which reentered the mine, and were either rolled to the headhouse or, if filled with slate, were hauled off on another incline to be dumped at the top of the gorge. Repairs were performed on the locomotives at the electrical shop while damaged coal cars and slate cars were sent to the car repair shop.³

The drift opening at Kay Moor was more than 500 vertical feet above the level of the processing plant. Coal was lowered 1000 feet down the 30 degree slope from the headhouse so it could be loaded into coke ovens or railroad cars. A two track gravity incline and two eight-ton monitor cars carried the coal down the slope. The two monitors were attached by wire rope cable to an eight-foot diameter drum in the headhouse at the mine opening. The cable was wound so that one monitor could be loaded at the top of the slope while the other was dumped at the bottom. The system was balanced so the loaded monitor rolling downhill turned the drum which pulled the empty monitor to the top. An operator controlled the rate of descent by working a brake. Thirty trips an hour could be made.⁴

The coal was moved from the drift opening to the railroad track level through a highly organized route. When the coal was taken from the mine it was taken to the headhouse, weighed, and dumped into a storage bin where it was fed directly into the monitor cars through two chutes. At the base of the monitor incline, the coal was discharged into a 100-ton capacity storage chute. A reciprocating feeder distributed the coal onto a horizontal belt conveyor which led into the processing plant. Up until 1924 a wooden tipple stood at the site; this burned and was replaced with more technologically efficient equipment. Berwind installed a new processing plant in 1925, and a Simon-Carves Baum Jig Washer around 1928, both built by Link Belt Co. of Chicago.⁵

Inside the plant the coal was either screened, or washed and then screened. The screening sorted the coal by size before it was loaded into railroad cars. The washing and screening process served to remove impurities from the coal before being sorted by size and loaded into the cars. When the Low Moor Iron Company owned Kay Moor the finer coal was coked in the beehive coke ovens located a short distance from the processing plant. After Kay Moor was purchased by the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company the beehive coke ovens were shut down and the coal was shipped by rail to customers.⁶

The processing plant screening process involved the coal being sorted by shaking screens which sorted the coal into appropriate sizes to be transported to different parts of the processing plant for storage, washing, or loading. Screens measuring 9/16" and 5/8" were used to gather the slack coal which was fed through chutes into the slack storage tank, from where the coal could be loaded into railroad cars. Larger sizes of coal were sent one of two ways. Sizes passing through 3 and 3/4" screens were sent to the washer room by a conveyor fed by chutes which led off the main shaking screen. This coal was washed and sorted into various sizes for shipment. The largest sizes of coal, which did not pass through the 3 and 3/4" screens, were passed onto an apron conveyor loading boom. The large coal could also be sorted into lump and other sizes. A chute located under the large screens collected spillage to be transported by a chain conveyor to an unloading chute.⁷

Coal to be washed passed from a conveyor to the washbox of the Simon-Carves Baum Jig Washer. As coal passed across the washbox water pulsations produced in the agitator by four air piston jigs kept the coal suspended in water. Heavier articles of refuse dropped to the bottom of the washer where it was removed. As the coal reached the far end of the wash box it moved into sluices which carried it to sizing screens. These two shaker screens carried the fine and slack coal onto a flight conveyor leading back to the main screening room and to the railroad cars or the slack storage tank. The screens sorted the coal into 1/2" x 5/6" pea, 5/6" x 1 and 3/4" nut, 1 and 1/4" x 3" stove, and 3" by 3 and 3/4" egg coal. These sizes could be run through a crusher, loaded separately, or mixed into combinations.⁸

Kay Moor, named for its builder James Kay, a Low Moor Iron Company employee, was a captive mine from 1900-1925. The mine and its accompanying coal town were self-sufficient. A workforce was housed in the company town, a steam powered generating plant located next to the processing plant supplied power, and coal was coked before being shipped to Low Moor. Additional surplus coal was sold on the open market.

The making of coke began at Kay Moor soon after the mine opened. In June 1901 a battery of 120 coke ovens were completed near the processing plant next to the railroad. These ovens were beehive ovens made of firebrick. Each was a circular, vaulted chamber with a flat tile bottom. The ovens had an opening at the top and an arched door at the bottom. A fire was built inside the oven to heat the firebrick, and the coal was added from the top from a "larry" car, which ran on tracks on top of the ovens. The coal was then burned for forty-eight or seventy-two hours with low oxygen. Workers then opened the door, watered down the fire, and withdrew the brittle, grey coke. Fifty-nine more ovens of the same size, shape and dimensions were built in 1917 by the Janutolo Construction Company of Fayetteville, West Virginia. A total of 202 coke ovens operated during World War I. These ovens were closed in the 1930s.⁹

The present condition of the mine site has been altered from its condition during the mining operation because of the growth of trees and foliage. Adverse weather had deteriorated some of the buildings onsite. Trees have also grown in and among the coke oven batteries. Caustic action of water mixing with the coal dust has deteriorated both wood and metal. Otherwise, the site is relatively physically intact. The site's bench level was salvaged in 1981-1982. The presence of the Sewell Seam dictated the location of the mine entry, while the steepness of the gorge slope determined that the mine be a drift mine, and the use of conveyor and incline systems to move both coal and people up and down the gorge wall to the mine and town sites. Springs, wells and the river provided water for both the coal processing and the townspeople, while the railroad guaranteed transportation of both coal and people. The current physical environment continues to determine general characteristics of not only West Virginia coal mining, but the nature of the industry in mountain areas -- isolated, and located next to railroads and rivers or streams.

All of the mine entries and auxiliary coal processing and administrative structures contribute to the district's significance. Many industrial artifacts associated with the mining and processing tasks are strewn over the site. Most of these are in a rusted, deteriorated condition, but many are salvageable and appropriate for interpreting the coal mining industry.

THE TOWN

The coal town of Kay Moor consisted of two sections; Kay Moor Top, located at the top of the New River Gorge, and Kay Moor Bottom, located at the bottom of the gorge next to the river and the south side main line of the C&O. (Only a small portion of Kay Moor Top is located within the boundary of the New River Gorge National River, therefore, the town site will not be included within this nomination. Any change in its status will be dealt with in a later nomination. The CSX tracks next to the New River are also not included in the nomination.) The settlement of Kay Moor was an adaptation to the environment. The layout of mines and town in New River Gorge was dictated by geography, with mine workings and housing being placed as close as possible to the drift mouth wherever flat space existed. The railroad imposed a linear pattern to the settlement, which was also affected by the narrow valley and the river front. The gorge forced settlement into a linear pattern, which in Kay Moor's case, was a two-tiered effect; top and bottom of the gorge, in addition to the vertical mining operation. Kay Moor Bottom was blessed with more level space than most West Virginia coal towns.¹⁰

The first houses were constructed in Kay Moor in 1901. Fifty were built that year, with 45 more in 1902, and 17 in 1905. An additional settlement, called "New Camp" or "New Town," of 19-24 houses was built a short distance from Kay Moor Top in 1918-1919. Although it is located outside the New River Gorge National River boundary, New Camp represents the only extant town site connected with Kay Moor. It is not known how many houses were built at the top and bottom of the gorge during the years of house construction. Maintenance on the houses was done by the Low Moor Iron Company and presumably by the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company.¹¹

In 1923 there were 131 houses at Kay Moor. Eighteen were on the public road, 48 were located on the company road, 65 were not located on a road. All of the houses in 1923 were single family dwellings. All had four rooms, fireplaces or stoves, single floors, and were made of wood with a ground floor size of 34 ft. x 34 ft. The outside finish of the houses was board and batten, the exceptions being 17 of the 1902 houses and all of the 1918 houses being covered with weather board. The inside finish of most of the houses was wood sheath, with the 1918 houses having plastered lathe. Electricity was available in all 50 of the 1901 houses, but only in 28 of the 1902 houses. Only 25 of the 1901 houses had inside running water. All of the houses, regardless of construction date, had roofs of composition paper, rock post foundations, privy and a coal shed, but no cellars. In 1923 the Kay Moor houses were all bungalows.¹²

In 1923 inhabitants were supplied with drinking water from nine hydrants, eight drilled wells, four springs, and river water. This amounted to 21 supply points for 106 houses, while 25 others had indoor plumbing. The sewage system consisted of surface privies for all 131 houses. The privies were not flyproof and had no covers or screens. Each family had its own privy, located anywhere from 20 to 100 feet from the house. Most garbage was thrown to the animals. Waste water was thrown out onto the ground or disposed of through 25 piped drains.¹³

Kay Moor's appearance in 1923 personified the typical West Virginia coal town. There were no streetlights in Kay Moor in 1923. There were no sidewalks, but hard paths led from house to house. Fences were around each house, and were generally well kept. Most families grew gardens and kept chickens, pigs and cows. There was no bank, no churches and no saloons in Kay Moor Top and Bottom proper. There was a theatre and a tennis court at Kay Moor Bottom. Other recreational facilities included a ball field and pool hall. There was no union hall or other public hall. Because the facilities at Kay Moor were segregated, there were two grade schools at Kay Moor Top and two at Kay Moor Bottom. These were segregated schools for black and white students. The post office was located in one of the company stores.¹⁴

Kay Moor Bottom was abandoned in 1952 and most of the inhabitants moved out. In April 1960 most of the vacant structures were destroyed by fire. Most remaining houses were dismantled. The present site of Kay Moor Bottom is intact and discernable. It is partially overgrown with brush, kudzu, and trees. Only sections of one house remains standing, while an adjacent house has collapsed. Foundations of houses are visible, with a few chimneys in ruins. The major ruin is of company store #9, located between the C&O tracks and the river.

CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES

Kay Moor Mine No. 1

1. Mine — Kay Moor No. 1, opened in 1900 and closed in 1962, was mined by the room and pillar system. The main opening is a double drift entry with two parallel openings and side openings at a 90 degree angle. Side entries were spaced at 450-foot intervals. Running parallel to the main entry were rooms, opened backward toward the main entry. The rooms were not spaced far apart, and openings into them facilitated air circulation. In 1902 the openings, or break-throughs, were 45 to 50 feet apart. The pillars, left between the rooms and break-throughs, were spaced 45 to 50 feet apart. The pillars served to support the roof. At the time Kay Moor No. 1 was opened a transition in mining techniques was occurring, from pick mining to the use of compressed air punching machines which would undercut the coal seam. By 1905 more efficient chain breast cutting machines were being used. By the 1930s conveyors were used, eliminating much of the handloading, although some handloading remained until the mine closed. The intent of the nomination is to protect what is visible at the mine openings, and to include at least first cross side openings to illustrate the room and pillar mining technique.

2. Drift Opening with Roof Bolts — n.d., Located north of the main mining complex along the Sewell Bench, this opening was cut into the rock face of the gorge, 13 ft. wide and 6 ft. high at some points. The opening is oval in shape, but much material has sloughed off which prohibits an accurate idea of its former size. Metal roof bolts extend down from the natural rock roof. Much rock roof material has fallen, yet the coal seam is visible on the sides of the opening. A low concrete retaining wall extends along the right side, and timbering is visible. The Office of Surface Mining placed an iron bat gate over this opening during reclamation efforts in fall 1987-spring 1988.

3. Fan House Drift Opening — Built by New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company after 1928, located 200 ft. north of Butcher Branch. Main opening was cut into the gorge in a westerly direction. A steel channel frame is on the opening exterior, 9.8 ft. wide and 10.3 ft. high. Concrete walls, 6 inches thick, are connected to the frame and extend 6 ft. back into the opening. The walls were originally tied into the excavated rock sides, but have broken off. The roof was once lined with concrete for 20 ft., but much has fallen. The opening is visible for 50 ft. before it bends, and has a height of 15 ft. Steel beams placed perpendicular to the drift form the floor and are tied into the rock wall on each side. Rails laid on top of the beams are visible. The coal seam, 4 ft. thick, is visible. Water flows out of the opening 10 ft. beneath the steel beams. The fan house remnants consist of the corners of two walls with three window openings and a section of a concrete roof. This sits on top of a concrete slab spanning a drift opening filled with water. This opening is 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. high, with steel beams supporting the concrete roof, which also serves as a floor of the fan house. The Office of Surface Mining placed an iron bat gate, with a door for access, over this opening during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

4. Right Main Drift Entry — n.d., Northernmost of a three entry drift complex, cut directly into layered, weathered rock located on the Sewell Bench. The opening is 12.5 ft wide and 6 ft. high. Material from the roof has sloughed and partially covers the opening floor. Many timbers stand up from the floor but no longer support the roof. The Office of Surface Mining placed an iron bat gate over this opening during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

5. Right Main Drift Entry — n.d., Middle drift entrance, 12 ft. wide and 11 ft. high, the opening is visible for 18 ft., thereon it is caved in. Surrounding rock is layered and weathered. The Office of Surface Mining filled in this opening with a form core covered with soil, during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

6. Right Main Drift Entry — n.d., Southernmost drift entry, was cut into the gorge in a westerly direction, and is 8.5 ft. wide and 6 ft. high. Concrete blocks are placed above the opening about 5 ft. high and along the right side to retain the slope. Concrete lines the left wall for 10 ft. The right wall and roof are lined with rock for 6 ft. Beyond the opening the entry is filled with timber and caved rock. The Office of Surface Mining filled in this opening with a form core covered with soil, during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

7. Fan House and Shop — Built c. 1919, the first fan houses on this location were wooden, all destroyed by fires. This concrete and brick fan house adjacent to the right main drift entry complex was built by the Low Moor Iron Company. The replacement fans forced air into the mine, a change from the previous exhaust system which drew air through the main drift entry. Abandoned, allowed to deteriorate, only one wall and a portion of another remain. The foundation is of natural stone. Attached to the fan house are three extant walls of a shop building, made from natural stone. No roof remains for either building. Extending above the fan house is a concrete exhaust chimney 10.2 ft. long and 7.4 ft. wide, with walls 14 inches thick. The concrete roof, 6 ft. high, serves as a base for a coal bin, 20 ft. above the floor of the mine opening. A concrete slab roof extends from the base of the fan exhaust to the drift opening. The slab roof is supported by steel I-beams. As this nomination form was being updated, work was underway to demolish part of the fan house because its deterioration posed a safety threat to visitors on the Mary Ingles Trail.

8. Tipple or Car Dump — n.d., Constructed of large wooden timbers and corrugated tin roof, used as a loadout facility. The structure is in very poor condition and is collapsing.

9. Electrical Substation — n.d., This structure is partially demolished, only remnants of concrete foundations remain.

10. Headhouse — c. 1899., Located at the main drift opening, served as a tipple and cable drum room for the monitor incline. Approximately 100 ft. long and 25 ft. wide, constructed primarily of wooden timbers, 18 to 24 inches in thickness. Steel plates are used as brackets and braces to join the timber framework. The roof was of wood sheathing, covered with asphaltic roofing material. The structure has been modified, including replacement of coal car dumping equipment, but it probably is the original structure built in 1899-1900. The scales are missing. The first car dumpers in the headhouse were probably cradle or side dumps that tipped coal cars sideways. The headhouse is in poor condition; much of the timbering is rotted. Salvors pulled the roof off between 1981-82. In 1989 stabilization efforts were undertaken to prevent the headhouse's collapse.

11. Left Drift Entry — n.d., Located immediately across the bench level from the headhouse and upslope. The roof of the entry was falling in, rail headers were visible, and much fallen slate was visible. Most of the approximately 18-20 ft. entry was filled in, yet the back portion was intact. The Office of Surface Mining filled in this opening with a form core covered with soil, during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

12. Left Drift Entry — n.d., Located upslope from the bench level, this entry has minimal cave in and the entrance is clear. Remnants of railroad ties can be seen. The Office of Surface Mining filled in this opening with a form core covered with soil, during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

13. Main Left Drift Entry — n.d., One of the main openings of the Kay Moor complex. A concrete headwall, inscribed "1927," is on top of the opening, supported by a steel I-beam. The opening is 17 ft. wide, and 8 ft. high. Other steel I-beams are spaced 15, 14, and 12 feet apart back into the opening for 41 ft. The I-beams support the concrete roof. The concrete area was used as a waiting room for the miners. Wooden ties are on the entry floor, along with a steel hopper. Visible distance in the entry extends 60 ft. The Office of Surface Mining placed an iron bat gate, with a door for access, over this opening during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

14. Lamp House/Superintendent's Office — Built c. early 1950s, cinder block building, 56 ft. long and 17 ft. wide, with walls of 9 ft. high, held lamp house where miners would store their lamps, and offices. The northern and a portion of the eastern walls are missing; the roof is missing but steel I-beams are used for roof trusses. Miners once hung their lamps on the extant racks. Much iron debris and racks were strewn about, and salvaged as artifactural evidence.

15. Concrete Staircase — n.d., Led from the bench level to a 30-40 foot stone escarpment, and continued up to the hoisthouse/haulage waiting area at the top of the gorge. The stairs served as an alternative to riding the mountain haulage. Extant remains include the steps, made of concrete, and sections of metal railing. The steps are covered with lichens, but were cleared of leaves and other vegetation in 1989.

16. Arched Drift Entry — n.d., Entry topped by a stone arch, 5 ft. high and 16 ft. wide. A concrete headwall sits on top of the opening. A concrete and stone wingwall retains the right side slope. A 76 ft. concrete retaining wall connects to the arch on the left side. The entry walls are lined with concrete block for 15 ft. The concrete roof is racked, broken, and supported by rails and timber. Some railroad ties remain on the floor. Visible distance in the entry is 30 ft. The Office of Surface Mining placed an iron bat gate, with a door for access, over this opening during reclamation efforts in 1987-1988.

17. Water Tank — n.d., Located up gorge wall above arched drift entry, and can be reached by stairs. The tank, approximately 20 ft. high and circular in shape, is steel and sits on T-rails and 4 sections of concrete foundation. Appears to be in good condition.

18. Mountain Haulage or Tram — n.d., Built to haul miners, townspeople, and equipment up and down the gorge. Extant remains include concrete foundations I-beam steel tracks, wooden structures with rollers, wooden ties, and bolts. Remnants of a hoist house is at Kay Moor Top.

19. Kay Moor Safety Board — n.d., Wooden bulletin board once displayed mine safety and other notices. It had fallen down and was rotting in 1986; however, in 1989, clearing and stabilization crews working at Kay Moor reconstructed the safety board by standing it up, painting it, and placing it alongside the Mary Ingles Trail. The board was moved about 25 ft. upslope due to ongoing stabilization efforts.

20. Coal Car Repair Shop — n.d., Wood frame two-story structure, bottom floor served as a repair shop for coal cars, top floor was office and storage space. Abandoned, and in very deteriorated condition. Numerous abandoned mine cars are strewn on the slope below the bench. Remnants also include a concrete platform, 61 ft. long and 28 ft. wide, with thickness of four inches, located on the downslope side of the bench between the car repair shop and the lamp house. A concrete retaining wall, seven ft. high is connected to the platform, which is supported by I-beam stringers, 12 inches deep on two ft. centers. Platform is in good condition.

21. Steel I-beam — n.d., Erected over bench level, main beam is 28 ft. long, 2.2 ft. deep with height of 15 ft. above the bench. A partial painted message is readable, "YOUR FAMILY WANTS YOU TO WORK SAFELY"

22. Powder House — n.d., Located along the Sewell Bench, south of the major drift openings, excavated into the hillside above the bench. Main building is 20 ft. x 19 ft., with walls of stone 1 ft. thick placed on a natural rock foundation, 3 ft. high. This is one of the best preserved structures, reflecting quality workmanship and materials. Black powder and fuses were stored here, later became a storage room for detonator caps and dynamite. The main building has a steel door with a circular opening for storing explosives. The ceiling is concrete supported by steel rails which extend to the walls. Wooden rafters form the roof pitch, which has a wooden subroof covered with tin shingles and corrugated metal. The north and east walls are stone, the south wall is concrete with wooden timbers and the west wall is concrete to a 3 ft. height with stone on top. The floor consists of wooden planks. An added room, which served as a detonator storage room, about 10 ft. square, has stone walls and a flat roof installed in 1989. Outer portions of the structure are relatively intact. A temporary roof was placed over the structure in 1989.

23. Cap Magazine — n.d., Located immediately adjacent to the north, but not attached to the powder house, is this structure of brick, 4 ft. x 3.5 ft., with a steel door. Probably used as a cap magazine. The structure was stabilized in 1989.

24. Twin Drift Openings — n.d., Located 500 ft. south of the powder house on the bench level, the openings are 30 ft. apart. Loose rock has filled in so that no significant openings remain. The easternmost opening has loose rock with old mine cars and debris. Southeast of it are the remains of a wooden loadout, built by punch miners in the 1950s. The westernmost opening contained loose rock with an excavated area above it. Opposite stands a concrete retaining wall, 4 ft. high and 75 ft. long.

25. Electrical Shop — n.d., Electric locomotives were repaired in this shop. No extant remains except for a concrete slab with a rectangular concrete well recess, or trough, 24 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, which was infilled in 1989, debris, and a a stone wall on the bench slope. The trough probably served as a motor pit.

26. Slate Disposal Incline — Built as early as 1919, replaced earlier system of dumping slate down the slope near the electrical shop. The only evidence remaining are two tunnels, cut through the cap rock at the top of the gorge, through which the slate car tracks passed.

27. Cap House — Built prior to 1932, located halfway down haulage on gorge wall. The house is brick on a concrete foundation, with an iron door, handle and peephole. The roof is corrugated tin with a wooden ceiling and metal grates on 2 side vents. The house is 8 ft. tall and 15 ft deep, and is in excellent condition.

28. Water Tank — n.d., Located halfway down the gorge wall from the Sewell Bench to the conveyor, the tank is 20 ft. high. It sits on 8 "T"-rails across 4 concrete slabs and is in good condition.

29. Monitor Incline — n.d., Built by New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, consisted of two sets of parallel tracks. The drum cable on the monitor incline lowered rather than raised coal; thus the workings inside the headhouse consisted of only the cable drum and cement moorings. The two monitors were on cables precisely wound to take advantage of the gravity. Extant remains include two sets of tracks, ties, stone support walls and support timbers. Strewn debris consists of rails and cables.

30. Monitors — n.d., Four of these remain on the site, one on the slope, one in the ruins of the conveyor house, and two at Kay Moor bottom, on a side track near the oil tanks. Each monitor carried 8 tons of coal, with a 45 degree angle open loading chute at one end, a chute on the other end, all riding on wheels. The cargo boxes are 12 ft. long 4 ft. wide, made of sheet steel with bolts. The monitor in the conveyor house ruins remains hitched onto cable.

31. Conveyor — n.d., Built by New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, consists of house and conveyor. Monitors emptied coal into the house where it was fed onto covered conveyor. The wooden house is in ruins, with a collapsed roof. The extant conveyor, in good condition, has rollers, corrugated tin roof, side railings, and stands on steel frames.

32. Sand House — Built c. 1950s, located west of the processing plant, the house is of concrete block with a corrugated tin roof, and is supported by steel rails and wooden beams. Much rail and machinery debris is strewn about the structure, along with a sand dryer inside. A sand car remains on rails next to the house. Sand was used for traction on the rails for the electric locomotives.

33. Oil Tanks — Built prior to 1932, located next to sand house, is small wooden pumphouse with two oil storage tanks. Both tanks sit on concrete platforms and are approximately 25 ft. long and 5 ft and 6 ft. in diameter. They are railroad tanker cars with their carriages removed.

34. Car Dropper — n.d., Located northwest of oil tanks on railroad tracks. Ruins are of a wooden shelter used to haul or drop cars into the processing plant.

35. Tin Shelter — n.d., Located next to processing plant, consists of 4 walls and roof, all corrugated tin. The structure contains wooden benches, with front and back door, a small back room, metal screens on windows, and is approximately 10 ft. wide, 15 ft. long. The shelter served as the "tipple" boss' office.

36. Processing Plant — Built c. 1925, the extant structure is a totally different one from the original. The first feed system of coal from the monitors to the processing plant is difficult to document; however, the original plant probably consisted of facilities and equipment for recovering, storing and transferring slack to the coke ovens. These facilities were dismantled after the coke ovens were abandoned. Because most of Kay Moor's output was run-of-mine coal intended for blast furnaces, no elaborate preparation, or processing equipment was probably needed. The limited number of coal sizes needed required only three loading tracks. The first track, nearest the slope wall, loaded slack, the second loaded nut and egg, while the third loaded lump. The tipple burned in 1924 and the extant structure, a corrugated metal, brick and concrete five-track processing plant, was built soon after. The Link Belt Company of Chicago supplied the belt conveyor from the monitor track, the main shaker screens and two loading booms. The facility also contained a large flight conveyor and slack storage tank. An exact date of construction is unknown. It is not known if the coal washing plant is part of the original plant or was added, no earlier than 1928. The Simon-Carves Baum Jig Washer is the most significant piece of machinery extant at Kay Moor Mine No. 1. The processing plant contains three major systems: the screening system, the slack recovery and storage system and the coal washing and sorting system. The screens could be changed to suit customer demands for different size coals.

37. Power House — Built 1900, to produce compressed air needed to power the ventilation fan and compressed air coal cutters, located next to processing plant. Steam was supplied by three 72" diameter 18-foot Erie City boilers, with a capacity of 150 horsepower each. Between 1902-1903 the power house was enlarged for a new steam engine and dynamo. An additional Erie City Boiler was installed. Electricity was produced for the mine locomotive, the mountain haulage motor, electric lights and other purposes. By 1915 an Atlas Water Tube boiler was installed with two generators. In 1916 a rotary convertor for transforming AC to DC power was installed. By 1919 a new turbine and Sterling boiler was installed. The power house also contained a Ballwood steam engine and Buckeye and Exciter engines. However, the plant never produced adequate power. After 1927 electricity was purchased from the local power company. Abandoned, and allowed to deteriorate, with 3 rooms, and partial roof. The structure contains arched entrances, screened and open windows, and the roof in the middle room is supported by steel girders. Much debris is strewn around the building, including machinery, turbines, coal screens, rope wheels, links, and other equipment. There is high probability that toxic materials are on the site.

38. Coke Ovens — Built 1901 and 1917, stand in two batteries of 101 ovens each, built of firebrick and stone, with arched stone doorways and iron handles. The ovens are located on both sides of each battery. Several ovens are numbered. Railroad tracks are no longer located beside or on top of the ovens. Abandoned, allowed to deteriorate with foliage growing around them. Some ovens are in good condition while others are almost in ruins. Cut stone sleepers survive on top of the ovens.

NONCONTRIBUTING

39. Truck Road, built c. 1950s by unknown persons, was used to haul coal from the site by truck, rather than use the railroad. The road extends from Fayette Station Road underneath the New River Bridge, along the Sewell Bench level past the Kay Moor complex and up to the top of the gorge. The road is unpaved. The Mary Ingles Chapter of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association of Fayetteville wishes to use the road as part of a trail system. The section of road from the Kay Moor bench level to the top of the gorge was used daily by the stabilization crew in 1989.

Kay Moor Top

CONTRIBUTING

40. Hoist House/Haulage complex — n.d., Located directly above the Kay Moor complex on top of the gorge, consists of concrete foundation and partial stone and brick walls shaped as an oblong room. Timbers and iron rails are also visible. Used as part of the haulage system, containing a hoist and rope to carry people and machinery up and down the gorge wall. The structure is in a very deteriorated condition. The haulage waiting room presently consists of a tunnel and remnants of the waiting area. Also remaining are sections of a wooden trestle over the rock escarpment, the haulage bull wheel, and stone foundations of an early hoisthouse, all located at the bottom of the steps at the cliff.

Kay Moor Bottom

CONTRIBUTING

41. Company Store #9 — n.d., Located between the railroad tracks and river, two-story stone building used as mercantile establishment. Ruins include partial walls, stone foundations and adjacent ice house.

42. Kay Moor Bottom town site — Originally built 1901, 1903, and 1905, the town site is located next to the railroad tracks and coke ovens. Stone foundations and chimneys are scattered throughout the trees at the west end of the site. Kudzu covers remaining foundations at the east end of the site which burned in 1960 and is still largely clear of trees. Railroad tracks run through the site. Future vegetation removal and archeological work could result in the gathering of more information on the town site, i.e. placement of houses, orientation of pathways, gardens, fences, and outbuildings. Also remaining are various railroad-associated features, such as side tracks, retaining walls, and trestles.

43. Kay Moor Bottom houses — n.d., ruins of two houses remain in the trees above the railroad tracks, west of the Kay Moor Bottom town site. Both are in very deteriorated condition and one has fallen over.

NOTES

¹Jerry Bruce Thomas, "Coal Country: The Rise of the Southern Smokeless Coal Industry and Its Effect on Area Development, 1872 - 1910" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1971), p. 101; Fayette Tribune, June 21, 1917; Lou Athey, Kaymoor A New River Community (n.p.: Eastern National Park & Monument Association, 1986), p. 2; Fayette Tribune, February 25, 1925. A major source of primary documentation on Kay Moor from 1900-1925 is the Papers of the Low Moor Iron Company, Accession 662, Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library.

²U. S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Historic American Engineering Record. "Kay Moor Coal Mine -- 1900 Fayetteville Vicinity West Virginia." HAER No. WV-38. Sheets 1 and 2.

³Ibid., Sheet 3; Keith Dix, Work Relations in the Coal Industry The Hand-Loading Era, 1880-1930 Institute for Labor Studies (Morgantown: West Virginia University, 1977), pp. 4-5.

⁴U. S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Historic American Engineering Record. "Kay Moor Coal Mine — 1900 Fayetteville Vicinity West Virginia." HAER No. WV-38. Sheet 2.

⁵Ibid., Sheets 2 and 9.

⁶Ibid., Sheet 2.

⁷Ibid., Sheets 9 and 11.

⁸Ibid., Sheet 9.

⁹Athey, Kaymoor, pp. 14-16; Thomas, "Coal Country," pp. 116-117.

¹⁰R. T. Hill, "Line Villages in Southern West Virginia: Examples in the New River Gorge," Proceedings New River Symposium Pipestem, West Virginia, April 11-13, 1985, pp. 123-124.

¹¹Athey, Kaymoor, p. 32.

¹²Record Group-68, United States Coal Commission, Records of the Division of Investigation of Labor Facts, Living Conditions Section, Completed Mining Community "A" Schedules, (Form LC-12), with Camp Ratings 1922-23. (Logan District, W.Va. - New River District W. Va.), Entry 62, Box 31, National Archives, Suitland, Maryland.

¹³Ibid.

8. Statement of Significance

Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions)
Industry
Engineering

Period of Significance
1900-1940

Significant Dates
1900
1925
1928

Cultural Affiliation N/A

Significant Person
Low, Abiel Abbott
Berwind, Charles F.

Architect/Builder Low Moor Iron Company, James Kay
New River & Pocahontas Consolidated Coal and Coke Company

State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above.

Kay Moor includes a coal mine, associated machinery and physical plant for processing coal, administrative structures, and a town built for housing mine workers and their families. The mine's headhouse and incline systems illustrate the special techniques employed by early 20th century American miners to extract coal from outcrops on steep slopes. Kay Moor's fan house, power house, drift openings, rail lines, and other integral elements survive, providing examples of typical mining practice of the era. The two extant inclines and headhouse are examples of specialized engineering adaptations to mining coal from the steep sloped outcrops. The processing plant with its Baum jig washer patented by Simon-Carves of England, shaker screens and other equipment, is exemplary of the move in the 1920s to produce mechanically cleaned coal for a general market. Kay Moor's coal was produced more cheaply because of the easier slope mining and the low labor costs associated with the absence of an established United Mine Workers of America local until 1933. The beehive coke ovens were an integral part of the captive operation. Kay Moor Top and Bottom are significant for being representative of coal towns associated with bituminous coal mining in West Virginia. Company towns were a visible symbol of the new industrial order in West Virginia, and they were the dominant institution in miners' lives. Kay Moor represents the best extant remains of a turn-of-the-century operation in the New River "smokeless" coal fields of central West Virginia.

During its lifetime the coal town of Kay Moor, Top and Bottom, exhibited general characteristics of West Virginia coal town social history. In the 1920s four-fifths of West Virginia mine workers lived in company towns, which were built immediately after a mine opened to house workers as no established communities were usually nearby. Construction of houses in Kay Moor Top and Bottom began within a year of the mine's opening. The history of coal town society involved the following issues focusing on the control of almost all aspects of miners' lives by the coal town owners: the instability due to the lack of home ownership; the economic health of the town being directly related to the economic health of the mine; and the quality and availability of schools, recreation facilities, stores, churches, and sanitation being directly under the control of the operators.¹⁵

Kay Moor was generally typical of this pattern. The town was built within a year of the mine opening. Like most West Virginia coal towns, it was located on a railroad which offered a market for the coal and was the reason for the town's existence. Residents had easy access to outside communities and cities, but Kay Moor offered no stability in terms of property ownership or job security. Control was the key to life in a company town, and certain aspects of life were dictated by the coal mine owners. Miners were not allowed the right to join a union for many years, and the town died when the mine was closed.¹⁶

The Kay Moor site was part of a larger economic picture; the coal and coke produced at the site fueled the Virginia iron industry from 1900-1925 and was subsequently shipped nationwide as part of the larger national and international market supplied by the New River and Pocohontas Consolidated Coal and Coke Company. The Kay Moor mine and town are examples of the coal mining system which dominated in West Virginia after the 1870s. This system was composed of mines located on a railroad, supported by a company town built and controlled by the coal operator. Few true company towns exist in West Virginia today. Private ownership, automobiles, and roads all contributed to the demise of company-owned towns.

The story of Kay Moor's mine and town history is representative of West Virginia's coal mining history. The traditional ways of mountain life were transformed with the coming of the railroad and coal industry. New ways of thinking and value systems were introduced by industrialists who controlled not only the coal companies and labor, but owned the land. Labor was provided by southern blacks and European immigrants who came to work the railroads and mines. In Kay Moor's case, capitalists such as Abiel Abbott Low founded the Low Moor Iron Company and purchased the New River property while Collis P. Huntington helped push the C&O through the New River Gorge, which resulted in the coalfields being opened. Charles F. Berwind, president of the Berwind-White Corporation of Philadelphia, owned Kay Moor after 1925, through the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary.¹⁷

Coal was very important to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The growth of the bituminous coal industry occurred after 1850 to fuel steam locomotives and river steamers, and to power the burgeoning industrial order. Bituminous coal was cheaper than anthracite, more abundant, easier to mine, and soon became a more important fuel source. Another major factor influencing the development of a West Virginia coal industry was the belief that an iron boom was beginning in Virginia in the 1880s. Virginia's blast furnaces were fed by West Virginia coals. In 1910, 75 percent of the energy used in the United States was supplied by coal. Within a few decades West Virginia's cheaper and superior coals outsold the midwestern fields. These coals were cheaper in part due to the easier slope mining and the low labor costs associated with the absence of the United Mine Workers of America on any significant scale until 1933.¹⁸

The Kay Moor complex is unique as a district because it has been relatively isolated and its mining features are intact, although deteriorated. The pattern of events which occurred at Kay Moor -- including the mine's opening and town construction by outside industrial interests, its clearly identifiable solutions to the problems of coal mining within steep gorge walls, its economic contribution to both coal and coke use, the use of immigrant and black labor, the fierce struggle to keep out the United Mine Workers of America, the observable transition from hand loading to mechanical processing from the extant equipment, and the legacy of coal town society which influenced West Virginia history to a great extent -- are all nationally significant due to the impact West Virginia coal mining had upon the national scene in economic, social, industrial, and labor terms. These events reflected the fortunes of the coal mining industry in America as well as the pig iron industry in Virginia. Events involving union issues reflected the broader national struggles. The mining technology used both inside and outside the mine reflected prevalent useage in drift mining in the New River coalfields.

Very little data exists on West Virginia coal mines, even within the New River Gorge, against which to compare Kay Moor. The only other known extant coal mine within the gorge which has relatively intact support structures is located at Nuttalburg. The extant mining facilities associated with this mine are of a completely different type than that associated with Kay Moor. The conveyance system is of primary importance; there was no monitor system for transporting the coal from the seam to the river, but there was a button and string operation. It is not understood how many processes were developed to overcome the 630 ft. drop from the coal seam to the river, these two conveyance systems are the only two known within the New River Gorge National River even though at one time there were more than 40 mines operating within the gorge. There is no town left at Nuttalburg. It is not known where people lived, or if there was a similar haulage system, as at Kay Moor.

The state of West Virginia has no survey of coal mines in the state. There is also no cultural resource inventory of features located within the New River "Smokeless" coal fields. It is known that Kay Moor is the most intact coal mining site within the boundary of the New River Gorge National River. Dr. Kenneth Sullivan, author of "Coal Men and Coal Towns: Development of the Smokeless Coalfields of Southern West Virginia 1873-1923," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1979, is editor of Goldenseal and Folklife Director for the Department of Culture and History, Charleston, West Virginia. In his opinion, no other comparable site to Kay Moor exists in Fayette and Raleigh counties, West Virginia. According to Dr. Sullivan, Kay Moor is representative of West Virginia coal mines; topographically the entire mining site is undisturbed and is unlikely to be disturbed.

Dr. Emory Kemp of the Department of History, Program for the History of Science and Technology, West Virginia University, has been involved with numerous projects regarding industrial archeology in West Virginia for the past 20 years. In his opinion:

the Kay Moor Mining Complex is the finest example of a coal mine operation in the great southern West Virginia-Virginia Coal Fields that [he has] discovered over the past two decades. It represents a unique historical resource epitomizing both the technical and social history of coal mining in the middle Atlantic Region. Other examples of mining . . . exist but none of them represent the history of coal mining from the 1870s to the Second World War, because of the extensive surviving structures which represent nearly all aspects of coal mining over more than a century.¹⁹

Even though no survey of coal mine properties is available against which to compare Kay Moor, it is believed to be the most representative, relatively intact, coal mine complex remaining in the New River region of West Virginia.

NOTES

¹⁴Ibid.

¹⁵Ronald D. Eller, Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers (Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 1982), pp. 162-163.

¹⁶Ibid., p. 162; Morton S. Baratz, The Union and The Coal Industry (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955; reprint ed., Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1983), p. 69.

¹⁷David Alan Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners 1880-1922 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981), pp. 6-7; Kenneth R. Bailey, "A Judicious Mixture: Negroes and Immigrants in the West Virginia Mines, 1880-1917." in Blacks in Appalachia, ed. William H. Turner and Edward J. Cabbell (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985), p. 117; Athey, Kaymoor, p. 47.

¹⁸Thomas, "Coal Country," pp. 2-5; Eller, Miners, p. 128.

¹⁹Correspondence, Emory L. Kemp to Sharon A. Brown, December 5, 1989.

9. Major Bibliographical References

Primary Sources

Manuscripts

Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library Papers of the Low Moor Iron Company Accession 662

Department of Culture and History
Archives and History
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Population, West Virginia
Mine Inspection Reports, West Virginia

National Archives, Suitland, Maryland
Record Group-68 Records of the United States Coal Commission

Interviews

Burgess, Virgil by Paul Nyden. Oak Hill, West Virginia, March 30, 1982.

Chambers, Mrs. Celia by Jim Worsham. Minden, West Virginia, April 6, 1984.

Deloney, Eric by Sharon A. Brown (Telephone) Washington, D.C. November 9, 1989.

Eades, Mrs. William (Nellie) by Lou Athey. Ansted, West Virginia, July 27, 1985.

Mathew, Russell by William E. Cox. Oak Hill, West Virginia, August 10, 1981.

Pashion, Mrs. Rosa by Ken Sullivan. Kaymoor, West Virginia, August 17, 1985.

Sullivan, Ken by Sharon A. Brown (Telephone) Charleston, West Virginia, August 4, 1988.

Toney, William by James Worsham. Ansted, West Virginia, August 9, 1984.

Woodson, Dometrius by Paul J. Nyden. Beckley, West Virginia, November 7, 1980.

Newspapers

Fayette Journal 1902-1906 (various articles)
Fayette Tribune 1906-1940 (various articles)

Secondary Sources

Articles

R. T. Hill, "Line Villages in Southern West Virginia: Examples in the New River Gorge." Proceedings New River Symposium. Pipestem, West Virginia, April 11-13, 1985.

Books

Athey, Lou. Kaymoor A New River Community. n.p.: Eastern National Park & Monument Association, 1986.

Bailey, Kenneth R. "A Judicious Mixture: Negroes and Immigrants in the West Virginia Mines, 1880-1917." in Blacks in Appalachia, pp. 117-132. Edited by William H. Turner and Edward J. Cabbell. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.

Baratz, Morton S. The Union and The Coal Industry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955; reprint ed., Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1983.

Corbin, David Alan. Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners 1880-1922. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.

Dix, Keith. Work Relations in the Coal Industry: The Hand-Loading Era, 1880-1930. Institute for Labor Studies. Morgantown: West Virginia University, 1977.

Eller, Ronald D. Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982.

Peters, J. T., and Carden, H. B. History of Fayette County West Virginia. Charleston: Jarrett Printing Company, 1926; reprint ed., Parsons, West Virginia: McClain Printing Co., 1972.

Dissertations

Thomas, Jerry Bruce. "Coal Country: The Rise of the Southern Smokeless Coal Industry and Its Effect on Area Development, 1872-1910." Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1971.

Reports

Skelly and Loy, Engineers and Consultants. Engineering Report and Technical Specifications for Design and Construction of Mitigating Measures of Kaymoor Mine Complex New River Gorge National River. Task 3 Report (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: September 1985.)

_____. Field Report and Preliminary Maps For Design and Engineering of Mitigating Measures of Kaymoor Mine Complex New River Gorge National River. Task 2 Report (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: July 1985.)

Unpublished Material

Bergstresser, Jack. "Kay Moor Coal Mine." Historic American Engineering Record. Typewritten manuscript. Copy available at New River Gorge National River.

Correspondence, Emory L. Kemp to Sharon A. Brown, December 5, 1989.

Marowitz, Matthew, P. et al., "Guide, The Low Moor Iron Company Papers #662 in the Manuscripts Department of the University of Virginia Library." Typescript collection guide, available from Manuscripts Division, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library.

U. S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. Historic American Engineering Record. "Kay Moor Coal Mine — 1900 Fayetteville Vicinity West Virginia." HAER No. WV-38. HAER documentation, compiled in 1986, consisted of 16 sheets of measured and interactive drawings, 76 large-format photographs, and written data. Reproductions of all documentation are available from the Library of Congress, Division of Prints & Photographs, Washington, D. C.

10. Geographical Data

acreage of property: 71.84 acres more or less

UTM References

USGS 7.5' Series Fayetteville quadrangle

UTM locations:

A 17 E 493 900 N 42 10 800
B 17 E 494 140 N 42 10 580
C 17 E 494 340 N 42 10 680
D 17 E 494 280 N 42 10 880
E 17 E 494 470 N 42 10 960
F 17 E 494 700 N 42 10 860
G 17 E 495 400 N 42 10 940
H 17 E 495 410 N 42 11 240
I 17 E 494 400 N 42 11 160
J 17 E 494 380 N 42 11 000
K 17 E 494 200 N 42 10 920
L 17 E 494 140 N 42 11 020
M 17 E 493 740 N 42 11 300
N 17 E 493 690 N 42 11 300
O 17 E 493 700 N 42 11 200
P 17 E 494 060 N 42 11 000
Q 17 E 494 090 N 42 10 880

Verbal Boundary Description

All that certain tract or parcel of land lying and being situated in Plateau District, Fayette County, West Virginia, consisting of the following three (3) parcels, and being more particularly described as follows:

Parcel 1: BEGINNING at a point on the centerline of a trail, said point having West Virginia State Plane Coordinates (South Zone) of N 382,880 and E 1,979,400; thence, leaving the centerline of said trail,

South 72 degrees 16' 19" West 15.00 feet; thence
North 87 degrees 15' 56" West 95.82 feet; thence
South 00 degrees 00' 00" West 300.00 feet to a point on Butcher Branch; thence, leaving said Butcher Branch,
North 88 degrees 11' 26" East 98.29 feet; thence
North 06 degrees 44' 24" East 15.00 feet to a point on the centerline of said trail; thence, leaving said centerline,
North 51 degrees 20' 25" East 19.21 feet; thence
North 11 degrees 46' 06" West 122.58 feet; thence
North 12 degrees 30' 24" East 158.33 feet; thence
South 72 degrees 15' 19" West 15.00 feet to the centerline of said trail and the point of beginning.

The above parcel of land contains 0.71 of an acre, more or less.

Parcel 2: BEGINNING at the aforementioned point on the centerline of said trail, said point being on or near the center of Butcher Branch and having West Virginia State Plane Coordinates (South Zone) of N 382,598 and E 1,979,390, said Parcel 2 to consist of a strip of land fifteen (15) feet to each side of a trail described approximately by the following centerline bearings and distances:

South 83 degrees 15' 36" East 110.77 feet;
South 48 degrees 20' 18" East 169.99 feet;
South 82 degrees 58' 38" East 139.04 feet;
North 59 degrees 44' 37" East 208.39 feet;
South 59 degrees 02' 10" East 87.46 feet;
South 15 degrees 45' 04" West 121.57 feet;
South 25 degrees 05' 53" East 384.28 feet;
South 86 degrees 45' 54" East 230.37 feet;
South 45 degrees 00' 00" East 193.75 feet to the end of said Parcel 2.

The above parcel of land contains 1.13 acres, more or less.

Parcel 3: BEGINNING at a point on the centerline of a trail, said point being the end point of the above described Parcel 2, having West Virginia State Plane Coordinates (South Zone) of N 381,900 and E 1,980,517; thence, leaving said centerline

South 45 degrees 00' 00" West 15.00 feet; thence
South 72 degrees 17' 28" West 80.19 feet; thence
South 22 degrees 37' 12" East 455.00 feet; thence
South 66 degrees 25' 06" West 687.41 feet; thence
South 48 degrees 44' 40" East 1,073.99 feet; thence
North 66 degrees 53' 35" East 732.82 feet; thence
North 20 degrees 22' 10" West 765.47 feet; thence
North 65 degrees 45' 08" East 652.57 feet; thence
South 63 degrees 44' 59" East 813.94 feet; thence
North 83 degrees 00' 00" East 2,325.00 feet; thence

North 10000.00 feet, more or less, to a point on the southerly edge of New River, said point also being on the westerly boundary line of that same land upon which a "flowage" easement was acquired by The Franklin Real Estate Company from the Electro Metallurgical Company by deed dated December 20, 1930, and recorded in Deed Book 72, page 277, in the Office of the County Clerk of Fayette County, West Virginia; thence along said southerly edge of New River westerly downstream 3,500 feet, more or less, to a point on the northeast extention of a line, said line referred to as "South 40 degrees 36' 05" West 230.49 feet" in that certain deed showing land acquired by Berwind Land Company from New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, dated January 1, 1930 and recorded January 27, 1930 in Deed Book 70, page 262, in the Office of the County Clerk of Fayette County, West Virginia; thence South 40 degrees 36' 05" West 180.00 feet, more or less, to a point on the westerly or southerly right-of-way line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company's (CSX) South Side Branch; thence continuing;

South 40 degrees 36' 05" West 230.49 feet; thence
South 48 degrees 34' 35" East 340.07 feet; thence
South 65 degrees 33' 22" West 749.15 feet; thence
North 21 degrees 55' 24" West 436.57 feet; thence
South 72 degrees 57' 11" West 185.55 feet; thence
South 45 degrees 00' 00" West 15.00 feet to the centerline of aforementioned trail and the point of beginning, excepting the reserving from the above described parcel those lands of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company's (CSX) right-of-way.

The above parcel of land contains 70.00 acres, more or less.

The above bearings and distances are based upon the "West Virginia State Plane Coordinate System, South Zone."

Boundary Justification

The Kay Moor boundary includes all lands owned by the New River Gorge National River, National Park Service, containing extant features relating to the Kay Moor Coal Mine No. 1 complex. Features which visually tie together the mining operation are included. This includes remnants of the hoist house used to operate the mountain haulage at the top of the gorge, all of the mine entries and related structures located on the Sewell bench level, the monitor/conveyor systems leading down to the river level, the processing plant, power plant and coke ovens, and the Kay Moor Bottom town site. The active CSX Railroad tracks located at the bottom of the gorge between the site and the New River are not owned by the National Park Service and thus are not included in this nomination.

11. Form Prepared By

name/title: Sharon A. Brown
organization: Denver Service Center, National Park Service
street & number: 12795 W. Alameda Parkway
city or town: Denver CO 80225
date: 7/13/90