Kaymoor

Kaymoor Bottom with Nuttallburg in background on opposite side of the river

 

Kaymoor was established by the Low Moor Iron Company of Lowmoor, Virginia to supply fuel for their iron furnaces. This company sought to capitalize on the proposed iron boom in Virginia, and used the coal mined from Kaymoor exclusively for their iron production. The company purchased several thousand acres in West Virginia and Virginia in 1873 and opened their first coal mines in Virginia. The West Virginia land was finally used as a mine site in 1899 with the establishment of Kaymoor. The first coal shipments went out in 1900, and Kaymoor produced 28,074 long tons of coal that year (James 1900). A long ton, the common unit of measurement for bulk commodities, is 2,240 pounds. Construction of employee housing began in 1901, and these first homes were built with electricity. This was also the year that former Congressman Joseph H. Gaines suggested building a post office for the community. The name of the community originally consisted of two words, Kay Moor, but was eventually combined into a single word.

Another mine site, Kaymoor Two, was established in 1903. Kaymoor Two mine was located near the present-day area along Fayette Station Road, while the residential area would have been at the top level near Fayetteville. This mine was not as profitable as Kaymoor One, its store and houses closed in 1923. The mine itself closed in 1926. Despite the advanced steam technology used at Kaymoor One, Kaymoor Two remained an old-fashioned pick mine and continued to use a traditional furnace air system. A fire furnace would pull air into the mine through one opening, and this was considered old-fashioned even in the 1920s. During the construction of the New River Gorge Bridge, the Kaymoor 2 mine was filled with concrete to support one of the bridge pylons.

The Low Moor Iron Company experienced difficult times in the early 1920s and sold both Kaymoor properties to the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company on March 1, 1925 (Burgess 1985). Negotiations for this sale took place over a luncheon meal. The New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company bought the nearby Minden mine operation for $1.2 million in 1904 (Paul 1905). Longtime Kaymoor employee Virgil Burgess claims that the final sale price of Kaymoor was kept secret, but it was probably higher than the purchase price of Minden.

The New River Pocohontas and Consolidated Coal Company was a branch of the Berwind-White Company. They operated four mines in the New River Gorge: Kaymoor, Minden, Layland, and Leslie. (Burgess 1983) along with mines in other parts of West Virginia and other states.

 

The Kaymoor Story Continued:

Coal Mining Methods at Kaymoor
Coke Production at Kaymoor
Living in Kaymoor
After the Coal Town
References

 

Kaymoor Mine Walking Tour