BackWoods Drifter

Visiting Twilight, West Virginia one finds themselves in the very heart of coal country. Stopping in at small convenience stores, the reflective stripes of coal miners rein supreme.

I had the opportunity to be in Twilight for most of the day today and I took a few photos. I had been wanting to visit the area for a while to take some photos. There was a heavy fog on so I didn’t really get to see what I wanted. Someone not used to the area would immediately notice a smell in the air. It was kind of like a taste and an odor. The odor was of burning coal and a strong sense of sulfur. I believe the sulfur is what was causing the sweet taste at the back of my throat. All up and down the potholed two-lane road you can glance up on the mountains and see smoke rising from the ground.

The only thing I’m not certain of is whether the smoke is coming from an un-mined coal seam or from abandoned coal mines. One thing I am certain of is that whichever it is, it is on fire. Oddly enough the smell brought back memories from quite a few years ago. There is a little town called Birchton just a few miles from where I live now and I remember a slate dump that used to burn right beside the road. You could smell it long before you could see it but after that it left no doubt where the odor was coming from. Although the fire at Birchton has been out for a long time, I’ll never forget the smell. Fires like these will smolder for years.

I am not real familiar with contour mining but I’m pretty sure that is what is going on in these next few pics.

These photos were taken a couple of miles down the road from Bandytown right before entering Van, WV. I really feel bad for the people who live on that side of Bolt Mountain. They have quite a lot to deal with.