Brian Johnson's coal camp blog post

      Thurmond was built in 1885 used to be a coal town on the edge of the New River in Fayette County West Virginia. There is only 5 white people that live in the town today but back in the 1920’s it used to be booming coal town. Thurmond is owned by the National Park Service for the New River Gorge National River. When Thurmond had 285 people in 1920 it was mostly used from switching trains that came from the mines into trains that hauled coal through the mountains for many of miles. Thurmond was once the site of a Hollywood movie too. The 1987 movie Matewan was filmed right on Main Street since it is one of the last coal towns that looks almost exactly as it did almost 100 years ago. Although there are only 5 residents still living there and the coal town long shut down, long trains filled full with coal continuously pass threw Thurmond everyday.