University of Virginia Library

Pocahontas and Flat Top Coal Regions

The Pocahontas and Flat Top coal regions opened
up by the lines of the Norfolk & Western Railway are
among the best in the United States. The coal is not
only of the highest quality but is in practically inexhaustible
quantity. Throughout a large portion of
Flat Top Mountains the coal is above water level and
lies most conveniently for cheap and expeditious mining.

The mineral is deposited in layers throughout the
mountain and mined by an entrance cut into the solid
bank of coal, on the side of the hill. Tipples are erected
near the entrance and through them the coal goes
into a railroad car, after being screened and the fine
coal separated.

These coals, geologically, are the lowest members
of the coal measures, and are the equivalent of the
Quinemont group of the Kanawha region and the
Pottsville deposits of Pennsylvania. They are low in
sulphur and ash and unusually high in fixed carbon

The coal bed presents a working thickness of about
eleven feet around Pocahontas and holds its working
dimensions until it reaches Flipping Creek, six or seven
miles distant, where it divides into two beds, each some
four and one-half and five and one-half feet thick.

Westward of Pocahontas, along Laurel Creek, the
bed carries its thickness fairly well for a distance of
eight miles, and shows practically the same section for
quite a distance north of the dividing ridge, on the
waters of the Elkhorn and the Tug Fork of Sandy. A
large area of country is underlaid with this coal, and
it has been estimated that it should yield ten thousand
tons per acre, while the upper beds should add probably
six thousand tons more. Its quality has been tested
both in the laboratory and by actual practice, and for
steaming and coking it has no superior. No better idea
of its quality can be had than from the McCreath and
D'Invillier's analysis which was made from fifteen to
twenty samples and is as follows:

   

Water	Volatile Matter	Fixed Carbon	Sulphur	Ash
1.011	18.812	74.256	.730	5.191

The same report gave the following analysis of coke
taken from ovens in the coking region:

           

Water	.182	.196	.664
Volatile Matter	.719	.494	1.059
Fixed Carbon	92.248	92.585	92.816
Sulphur	.565	.677	.548
Ash	6.286	6.048	4.913
	100.000	100.000	100.000

Since the discovery of this valuable field many coal
operations have begun and the whole region of country
has developed in an amazing degree.

Thousands of men are employed and many new
towns have sprung up along the lines of the Norfolk
& Western.

Millions of dollars are invested in plants, machinery
and equipment for mining coal and for ovens for making
coke. The shipment of coal and coke has become
a business of first importance and the Norfolk & Western
is now the greatest coal carrying road in the South.