Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Beckley, Welch & Matewan


Today was a long but interesting day.

We started with a visit to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Our guide, Marvin, was excellent and interjected a lot of personal anecdotes and humor. We took time to visit the mining museum and the model coal town.

A short drive took us to Terex SHC where highwall mining equipment is manufactured. This was a very impressive operation. This equipment allows a very small but highly skilled mining crew to extract a large amount of coal very quickly without having to send miners underground. Their operation is a credit to our state and is the only major manufacturer of highwall equipment.

Leaving the Beckley area, we drove to Welch, WV to see the courthouse where Sid Hatfield was assassinated.

Here is a snapshot of the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, WV where former Matewan Chief of Police, Sid Hatfield died in 1921. He was only 20 years old.



An article in the New York Times discusses the assassination.

From there, we went to Matewan, WV to visit the museum then to walk around the town with Dr. Little to learn about the fateful events of May 19, 1920 when the Matewan Massacre occurred. Dinner a local pizza place in Matewan then a drive-by at the Williamson railyards and the Williamson Coal House before headed for our home for the next couple of days, the Logan Best Western.

Everyone is tired but it was an interesting and informative day.

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