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Car record books of the Cabin Creek Consolidated Coal Company, in Kanawha and McDowell counties. Listed are consignees, serial numbers, types of cars, route, destination, and related information for the Acme, Empire, Buckeye, and Keystone mines.

Mine disaster reports, official hearing reports, and hearing and inquest transcripts (1938-1967). Most of the mine disaster reports were created by inspectors from the West Virginia Department of Mines, and some of them involved federal inspectors. Other reports were created by the United States Bureau of Mines and the West Virginia Department of Mines Coal Mine Safety Board of Review. Also includes volumes 3 through 8 of the Decisions of the Interior Board of Mine Operations Appeals (1974-1977). The mine disaster reports and associated materials pertain to the following mining companies, with counties where the disaster occurred in parentheses: American Rolling Mill Company (Boone County), Amigo Smokeless Coal Company (Wyoming County), Boone County Coal Corporation, Christopher Coal Company (Monongalia County), Davis Coal and Coke Company (Tucker County), Hatfield-Campbell Creek Coal Company (Kanawha County), Hitchman Coal and Coke Company (Marshall County), Island Creek Coal Company (McDowell County), Katherine Coal Company (Harrison County), Koppers Coal Company (McDowell County), MacAlpin Coal Company (Raleigh County), C.H. Meade Coal Company (Raleigh County), Meadows Coal Company (Raleigh County), New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company (McDowell County), Oglebay Norton Company (Nicholas County), Page Coal and Coke Company (McDowell County), Parsons Coal Company (Preston County), Pemberton Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), Pocahontas Fuel Company (a division of Consolidation Coal Company, McDowell County, near Tazewell County, Virginia), Pursglove Coal Mining Company (Monongalia County), Raleigh Coal and Coke Company (Raleigh County), and Red Jacket Coal Corporation (Wyoming County).

Correspondence, minutes, newspaper clippings, publications, photographs, and other papers (1965-95) of Dr. Joanna Strosnider Nesselroad documenting the organization and administration of the nation's first Head Start Program. Dr. Nesselroad began the first Head Start Program in McDowell County in 1965, and has served as West Virginia's regional training officer and as a national consultant for the Program. There are also letters, newspaper clippings, publications, photographs, slides, and other papers (1930-86) of a former West Virginia University Agriculture professor, W.W. Armentrout. Subjects include milk production and distribution, agricultural economics, broiler industries, and the West Virginia University College of Agriculture. Also includes financial records of the Armentrout Memorial.

Building inventories, photo Xeroxes and indexes, street maps, taped interviews and summary reports of a historic buildings survey of Keystone by the WVU Public History Program in conjunction with the Historic Preservation Unit of the WV Dept. of Culture & History. The study of this McDowell County community provides "a basic architectural history of one southern coal town". Additionally, the oral histories and narrative report provide a more complete history than contained in typical building inventory forms. Keystone (originally Cassville) acquired its name from the company which opened the first mine there in 1892. This town, along the Norfolk & Western Railroad line, prospered up to the time of the Great Depression, and it was noted for its various neighborhoods of Blacks, immigrants and wealthy as well as a part of town, called "the Cinderbottom", that was a thriving red light district.

Typed 23 page manuscript history of the McDowell County coal mining communities of Caretta and Coalwood by Homer Hickam, the author of Rocket Boys. Caretta and Coalwood were started early in the twentieth century as coal camps by the mine operator George L. Carter. The fortunes of both towns represent the economic cyclical nature of mining throughout the twentieth century reflective of many coal field communities within the state.

This collection consists mainly of business records of the United Pocahontas Coal Company of Crumpler, West Virginia (McDowell County), including a one-page typescript history of the company, bylaws (1915), business correspondence, and three blueprint maps.