THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609130084
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, TRAVEL EDITOR
DATELINE: POCAHONTAS, VA. LENGTH: 74 lines
NEXT TIME you're stopped at a railroad crossing watching car after car after car heaped high with coal rumble past, here's something to think about:
Where does all that stuff come from?
Back when coal mining was even harder than it is today, back before this labor-intensive industry gave way to mechanization, a lot of it was hacked and blasted out of rich veins beneath these mountains in what was called the Pocahontas Coalfield.
This place, in the northwest corner of Tazewell County, is so far west you have to go in and out of West Virginia a couple of times to get here.
The town of Pocahontas is home of the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine and Museum, a National Historic Landmark and Virginia's official Coal Heritage Museum. It was the first of many mines in the Pocahontas Coalfield, opened in 1882.
Both the coalfield and the town were named for the Virginia Indian princess, recently glorified or trivialized - depending on your interest in the way it really was - by the Disney movie, because this area was the princess of the coal country.
This particular mine, a small section of a honeycomb complex of tunnels that stretch for 10 miles under the mountain, is no longer operational. Once more than 5,000 men worked these seams.
By 1938 the original opening, the famed ``Baby Mine,'' had worked out, and new portals were driven in across the creek and down the hollow.
But its life was far from over.
You can tour it with a guide April through October. Used to be you could drive through it (1938-84), but bad driving finally put an end to that adventure.
The mine was closed for repairs and reopened in 1989.
Pocahontas coal was even more renowned for its quality than its amazing volume. By the turn of the century Pocahontas No. 3, as the top grade was called, was the standard against which all bituminous coal was measured.
Its remarkable purity - said to be 97 percent pure and virtually smokeless - made it the fuel of choice for the U.S. Navy. Which is why a lot of it has been hauled to Norfolk for a long time. It also heated homes across America.
The 750-foot guided walking tour takes about a half hour. It's an easy, level stroll through a well-lit tunnel that is still large enough to drive a car through, so there should be no fear of claustrophobia. The temperature in the mine never fluctuates much from 52 degrees, so it's particularly nice on a hot summer day. There's a museum in the adjacent building that once was a miners' washroom.
The guides point out that more than 44 million tons of coal - all picked and hauled by hand - came out of this mine in 73 years of operation. That's enough coal to fill cars on a train 6,000 miles long, which is longer - much longer than you want to think about - than those that rumble through Norfolk every day.
This particular mine had a seam of coal that averaged 9-12 feet thick. That is enormous. Most coal seams were about 4 feet thick.
In the coal seams, glistening black from the damp air, you can see fossilized remains of a tree, a snake and a fish from an ancient era.
The guides also tell of the 1884 cave-in in which 114 miners - mostly Italian, Hungarian and Russian immigrants - were killed. They are all buried together in a hillside cemetery at the edge of town. Each March 13, candles are put on the graves to mark the disaster's anniversary. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
POCAHONTAS AT A GLANCE
Getting there: From South Hampton Roads, take I-64 west to
Staunton, I-81 south to Wytheville, then I-77 west to Bluefield.
From there take Va. 102 to Pocahontas, where you follow signs to the
mine. Alternate route: I-81 south to Christiansburg, then U.S. 460
to Bluefield.
Open: 10-5 Monday through Saturday, noon-6 Sundays, April 1
through Oct. 31.
Admission: $5 for adults, $3 children 6-12; there is a $1
discount for AAA members and groups of 12 or more.
Info: (540) 945-2134 or (540) 945-9522. by CNB