Pocahontas Coalfield

Geographical boundary of the Pocahontas Coalfield (in pink) comprising Tazewell County Virginia, McDowell County West Virginia and Mercer County West Virginia
Geographical boundary of the Pocahontas Coalfield (in pink) comprising Tazewell County Virginia, McDowell County West Virginia and Mercer County West Virginia

Pocahontas Coalfield, which is also known as the Flat Top-Pocahontas Coalfield, is located in Mercer County/McDowell County, West Virginia and Tazewell County, Virginia.[1] The earliest mining of coal in the coalfield was in Pocahontas, Virginia in 1883 [2] at Pocahontas Mine No. 1, now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Pocahontas Coalfield Centennial Celebration medal

The coal seams—Pocahontas No. 3, No. 4, No. 6, and No. 11—are some of the best coal to be found in the world, and are rated at 15,000 Btu/lb (35 MJ/kg).[3]

This operation, replete with beehive coke ovens, eventually spawned the Pocahontas Fuel Company, which operated mines in Virginia at Boissevain and Amonate, and in West Virginia at Jenkinjones, Bishop, and Itmann.

  1. ^ White, Israel (1891). Stratigraphy of the bituminous coal field of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 203–204.
  2. ^ "Pocahontas is a town in Tazewell County, Virginia, named for the Algonquian Indian woman Pocahontas". pocahontasva.org. Archived from the original on 2010-02-27.
  3. ^ "Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia". The Coal and Coke Operator and Fuel Magazine. 17. Pittsburgh, PA: Coal Publishing Company: 249. July 1913.