Kaymoor is an abandoned town in West Virginia that once housed coal miners and their families who worked at Kaymoor "Number One Mine", which operated from 1899-1962. This is an historic/cultural preservation reserve. During the 1900s, thousands of migrants from England, Ireland, Wales, Italy, Eastern Europe and the Southern United States immigrated to work in the mines here at what was once a bustling town. Below Kaymoor Top are the 800 steps leading to ruins of what was once a bustling coal operation with numbers of coke ovens used to make coke from coal. Coke is a fuel produced by baking coal in an oven under a regulated flow of air. Impurities burn away, leavining only high-carbon coke, which burns hotter than coal. Coke was used extensively to fuel iron furnaces. The Kaymoor mines were originally opened to supply coal to product coke to fuel the furnaces of the Low Moor Iron Company of Virginia.

Friday I said I'd post more Florida images, but then had a decent trip to Kaymoor Miner's Trail, so have been posting on that instead. Apparently there is an old abandoned miner's town at the very bottom, next to the river. I find the above photo interesting that the lines in it zigzag about the image and mainly down the center, with nearly all overlapping. The staircase leading down the mountain is the beginning of the main Kaymoor Top stair head. By showing the steps and the upcoming elevation changes from my current standpoint at the time (1503.3 ft altitude) versus the altitude of Kaymoor Bottom (709.3 ft altitude), you can get a sense of how steep a walk this is, and that you need to brace yourself as you walk it down. The photo above is at Kaymoor Bottom, and these buildings are the remains of Kaymoor's coal processing plant and power station. You'll find various coke ovens and other industrial remains wildly disbursed throughout the area. The town had died by the 1950s and the remains of old coke ovens and other signs of humanity were burnt in a fire that occurred in 1960. This staircase is known as the boardwalk. In the past, there was also a haulage cart available that would transport passengers down more efficiently on rails. It was an electricity-powered haulage cart descended from cables which spanned nearly half a mile up and down the mountain. This image, and the image below shows the initial trail heading up to the steps. Both were taken on the way back up to the entrance.

All for now. As always, feel free to suggest places for me to visit, study, and document in the future. Happy St. Patrick's Day! [contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]