| The history of McComas, WV is closely intertwined with all the areas I
have pictures of below. The company towns of Crumpler and Lamar reside just
over the mountaintop from McComas in opposite directions. They were owned
and operated by the same individuals who ran the McComas operations. Many of
the men lived at McComas but may have worked at one of these other two
locations. To get to McComas from the Bluefield area one would travel
through Montcalm. Matoaka evolved after the turn of the century and became a
thriving little town for shopping and recreation for many of the local coal
miners and their families. Today its a trip by car but around the turn of
the century it may have been by a Norfolk & Western Train or later on a
Trailways bus (how they maneuvered those tiny twisted roads between McComas
and Matoaka is still a mystery).
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| Pictures |
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| American Coal Company,
McComas, WV General Managers House American Coal Company, McComas, WV McComas Unidentified Tipple (old) Supplied by Cynthia and Ann Sanders - taken from their father American Coal Company Payroll Master/Bookkeeper John Sander's collection - on the back of the photo was written "Coal Tipple at McComas" Bluefield, WV Norfolk&Western Train Station Bluefield, WV N&W Train Shop (1944) Coal car inside mine Conner Mountain School near McComas, WV Supplied by my friend the late Sybil Steel Browning of Conner Mountain, WV Inside Crane Creek Store, McComas, WV Crane Creek Tipple Crane Creek Tipple Crew 1937 Crane Creek Gas Station (H.W. Arrington) Supplied by his son Wayne Arrington United Pocahontas Coal Company, Crumpler, West Virginia Crumpler/Indian Ridge Mine Crumpler Tipple Crumpler Mine Car Lamar Colleries, near Matoaka, WV(Part of Virginia B. Coal Company) Outside Lamar Colleries Lamar Collieries Tipple Matoaka Train Station Nov 27, 1918 In and Around McComas, WVCharles Cromwell Bird and Viola Rose Scott Bird. (photo supplied by Sandy Bird Porterfield their granddaughter - Charlie was Store Manager for American Coal Company)
Ted Saddler on the hill above the
community building, McComas, WV
9/2/2007 Email from Kevin Spicer I was browsing your McComas site again and revisited some of the old photos. The one that has interested me for a while is the gathering outside the theater with the Tim McCoy movie. I found this link on the web. McComas Company Houses 1920 McComas American Coal Co. Car Load Sale 1937 Supplied by Wayne Arrington McComas American Coal Company Lab McComas Commissary Store McComas Company Doctor William Fitzhugh  McComas Mannering Road Sign located
at the entrance to Church Hollow at McComas, WV
(photo by Pat Smith 3/2007) McComas
Miners Band (1930s)McComas/Pinnacle Slate Dump Explosion (1920s) Pinnacle Store, American Coal Company Supplied by Sis Laenen McComas Theatre Movie Advertisement August 1942 Supplied by Bob Saddler Inside Pinnacle Store McComas Theatre (Outside) Supplied by Nancy O'Dell McComas Theatre (Inside) Supplied by Nancy O'Dell Pinnacle Coal Mine(Vanis Gills working there) McComas - Thomas Coal Camp(Winter Scene) McComas - Thomas Coal Camp Supplied by Nancy O'Dell McComas - Thomas Coal Company Store Supplied by Nancy O'Dell McComas - Thomas Company Store Gas Pumps Supplied by Nancy O'Dell (This is Bill Spicer father of Patricia Spicer Smith webmaster of this website and the uncle of Nancy O'Dell standing at the gas pumps out front of the Thomas Coal Company Store probably late 1940s or early 1950s. Notice the railroad tracks going up Pinnacle Hollow in the background along with the Coal Company Shop buildings. The Pinnacle tram tracks were up on the embankment in the rear of the photo.) McComas - Thomas Coal Camp 1964(Cora Huffman & Mickey Spicer - our favorite ball field in the rear (the old slate dump) - the house in rear was the home of Mr. Wiekel (Thomas Company Store Manager) and later the Parsonage for the local Thomas Penicostal Holiness Church at one time - our favorite sledding place was that long driveway going up to the house) Mildred Sigmond Walker remembered working at the Thomas Store and climbing those long steps up to Mr. Wiekels house when she would be invited up for lunch. Probably at least 100 steps and they went straight up the steep hillside. McComas - Thomas Coal Tipple McComas Red Hollow aerial view after restoration McComas Sagamore Store McComas Sagamore Tipple Norfolk & Western Railroad Norfolk & Western Train(McComas daily runs) N&W Bluefield Train Yard 1944 N&W Train Station, Bluefield, WV Mr. & Mrs McMillan McComas, WV Train Depot Station Master and his wife Ole Luke who worked at the McComas, WV Train Depot Station Master W.H. Thomas - McComas Coal Baron Isaac T. Mann - McComas Coal Baron Montcalm Train Depot ENTERTAINMENT 1950/60s Entertainment - Skyway DriveIn Movie Theatre at Brushfork PICTURES TAKEN MAY 2001 Bank of Matoaka Main Street of Matoaka (almost all boarded up) Old Road between Matoaka & Giatto (N&W RailRoad - this is also the road to McComas via Giatto, Weyanoke, Conner Mountain, Thomas, and Pinnacle) Horseshoe Turn, Conner Mountain Catholic Church, McComas, WV Pinnacle Elementary School, 2001(house to left of the school is also in the 1920s McComas/Pinnacle Slate Dump Explosion picture above - the school and this road were built over the explosion debry. The green roadside to the left goes up to the Harman Cemetary.) WindMill Gap Store (they were advertising beans and cornbread on that marquee out front) View of McComas from WindMill Gap (Crane Creek, Sagamore, then McComas looking outward) Sagamore Store(sat to the left of the bridge/road - Sagamore Hollow to the right is now a dam) McComas High School Steps (if you can see them through the trees - 41 years after closing) McComas Methodist Church (a shell of what it used to be - to the right take the road to go up to Sagamore and Crane Creek. The Community Center sat in right hand side of the picture - beside it would have been the theatre, and Catholic Church. To the left of the picture was where the Post Office and Train Depot were.) McComas Community Center Site (Site of where Community Center once sat - wall and sidewalk still remain. The Catholic Church is to the left.) McComas Houses Today (Coke Road, Pinnacle) Electric Shop leaving Sagamore (all that remains at the Crane Creek Tipple area - the American Coal Co. Tipple sat on the left below this shop. taken May 2001) Remains of original garages (built for residents at Pinnacle) Thomas May 2001 (coming off Conner's Mt) McComas Pioneer Coal Miner |
