KAYMOOR:  ONE NAME, TWO MINES, FOUR TOWNS, SIX  STORES
By Joe Feazell

            Many people, including local historians and writers, are confused about Kaymoor, a famous New River Gorge coal mining town.  I suppose I should say “towns” since there were four separate Kaymoor communities.  My mother was born at Kaymoor Two Top (K2T) in 1915.  I remember hearing her talk about going to the company store at nearby Tourison and have always wondered why she didn’t use the store at K2T, much closer to her home.  Research provided the answer.

            The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad through the New River Gorge was completed in early 1873 and half a year later the Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia was chartered.  At first Low Moor shipped ore from its iron mines to furnaces in other locations, but it soon became evident that it might be more profitable to ship coal and coke to their iron mines.  The first of several iron smelting furnaces was built at Low Moor, near Clifton Forge, in 1878.

Coke Ovens at KAYMOOR  ONE - BOTTOM 1920s
Photo: Wallace Bennett

Initially Low Moor bought coal from mines along New River in West Virginia, and converted it to coke in their own ovens near the furnaces.  In 1899 the company decided to mine their own coal on lands owned by the company in W. Va.  Two  mines were opened in the Sewell Seam on a bench 500 feet above the south bank of New River.  The first mine was located a mile or so upriver from the truss bridge at South Fayette/Fayette and the second was about a quarter mile downriver from the bridge.  The first car of Kaymoor coal was shipped in late August 1900.

James Kay was the Superintendent in charge of opening the mines and construction of shops tipples, employee housing, and other facilities.  He lent his name to the communities which sprang up along the C & O tracks and the river.  Kay Moor One Bottom (K1B) around Mine #l, and Kay Moor Two Bottom (K2B) at the site of Mine #2.  Soon all the available space on the lower level was filled up, so the company built additional facilities on the rim of the canyon.  These plateau communities became known as Kaymoor One Top (K1T) and Kaymoor Two Top (K2T).  Each of the four Kaymoor towns had its own store, churches, schools, and other facilities for their employees.

KAYMOOR ONE- BOTTOM

KAYMOOR ONE - TOP
1918
Photo: Wallace Bennett

            Low Moor operated twelve company stores for their employees:  eight in Virginia and one at each of the four Kaymoor communities.  By 1902 Store #9 was operating at K1B and Store #10 at K2B.  Later Store #11 was built near the haulage house at K1T, and Store #12 near the houses at K2T.  Remember that these are Low Moor stores and that company assigned the store numbers.      

NR&P Store  KAYMOOR ONE - BOTTOM

(Originally built by Low Moor Iron Company Store #9.  After NR&P took over they continued to called it Store #9)

            Kaymoor One mine produced nearly 17 million tons of coal in its sixty plus years of operation, 1900-1962.  During its twenty-some years of operation Kaymoor Two mine produced only half a million tons.  By 1923 Kaymoor Two mine and Stores #10 and #12 had closed and only the houses at K2T remained in use.  In 1952 K1B closed and its residents moved to homes at K1T.  About 40 vacant houses at K1B were destroyed by forest fire in 1960, leaving only 11 untouched.  Since  the demolition of Kaymoor One tipple last year, little more than foundations and ruins remain of a once thriving community.  K1B is no more.

                                            Abandoned Tipple at
                                                                                                            KAYMOOR ONE 
                                                                                         BOTTOM

   KAYMOOR - TWO - Tipple in 1920
 The south side piers for the New River Gorge, "Single Span Arch" bridge are on this site.

The demand for iron declined sharply after World War One.  In 1924 the Kaymoor One tipple, built in 1900, was destroyed by fire.  The following year Low Moor made the decision to sell its Kaymoor operations rather than rebuild.  New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, commonly known as N R & P., a subsidiary of the Berwind-White Coal Mining company of Pennsylvania, purchased Kaymoor for a reported price of l,00l.000 dollars.  A modern steel tipple was constructed in 1925 and remained until it was demolished by the National Park Service, March 10, 1999.

            N. R. & P. made many changes at Kaymoor.  They built a new mountain haulage and a steel tipple.  A nice brick store on the Gatewood-Fayetteville road in Garten replaced the old Low Moor Store #11 at K1T.  A new store at Tourison, near Fayetteville, replaced the old Low Moor Store #12 at K2T.  The closure of the latter store is why my mother had to shop at the Tourison store.

THE OLD ALTAMONT SCHOOL
 in  GARTEN

Constructed in 1925 
The School burned in  1962

Early 1900s Post Card showing Kaymoor One - Bottom

The long structure in the background is the "button line" for the Nuttallburg mine