National Park Service reopens 821-step stairway to Kaymoor Bottom

12/11/2023

A century ago, when the Kaymoor No. 1 mine was in its heyday, the daily commute between home and worksite could be a bit nerve-wracking.

Miners living in company housing at Kaymoor Top, a coal camp on the rim of the New River Gorge, rode an open cable car called a mountain haulage down a near-vertical slope to reach a bench halfway down the canyon. There, the entrance was located to the drift mine in which they toiled.

From the mine bench, the mountain haulage proceeded downslope to the base of the Gorge, where other workers processed coal at a tipple, loaded it into rail cars or fed it into more than 200 brick ovens to bake it into coke.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/outdoors/national-park-service-reopens-821-step-stairway-to-kaymoor-bottom/article_ca95e2b4-8aa8-5e83-aa3f-f2be9014f768.html

Go Back to daily304

National Park Service reopens 821-step stairway to Kaymoor Bottom

WV.gov

Help

Policies

Stay Connected