Photo, Print, Drawing House in Montcoal, West Virginia

About this Item

About this Item

Title

  • House in Montcoal, West Virginia

Names

  • Eiler, Lyntha Scott (Photographer)

Created / Published

  • January 31, 1996

Headings

  • -  Coal camps
  • -  Winter
  • -  January
  • -  Photographs
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  West Virginia -- Raleigh County -- Montcoal

Genre

  • Photographs
  • Ethnography

Notes

  • -  "One of the earliest coal camps on Coal River was established at Montcoal, shown on early maps as "Hecla." In the 1930s the Colcord Coal Company operated mines at Montcoal. In the 1930s, John L. Lewis came to Montcoal to organize the union, and had to stand, as Mae Bongalis remembers it, on the railroad tracks, because Colcord would not allow him on the property. Mae Bongalis, who grew up in a coal camp on Montcoal Mountain, told of working in the mines as a young girl, and of riding the incline down the mountain and back in order to do business in the valley. The form of the company town was ubiquitous throughout the coalfields, and expressed the social vision of the men who were reshaping the region's economy. The companies provided housing for miners and their families, docking the rent from their paychecks. Food and other necessities were sold at the company store, often in exchange for "scrip," a form of compensation to miners redeemable only at the company store, which many recall charged higher prices than other local retailers. Many companies also built churches, parks, ball fields, and movie theaters.
  • -  The towns were usually segregated by race and ethnicity, with the more luxurious homes of superintendents and doctors placed above the town. In Montcoal, the superintendent and doctor lived across the river on "Cigar Hill" (45-8). Armco Steel Corporation took over the lease to Montcoal in the 1950s and retained it into the mid-1980s. When Armco left, tenants had an option to buy the houses, but not the land, which the Peabody Coal Corporation leased for a few years, after which the A.T. Massey Coal Company acquired the lease. In the 1990s, John Flynn rented a house in Montcoal, where he coordinated the Appalachia Forest Action Project. During our field project, the Upper Big Branch Mine at Montcoal, a longwall mine, was operated by Performance Coal Company, a subsidiary of Massey Coal."

Medium

  • 35 mm Color Slide

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1999/008: CRF-LE-C063-10

Source Collection

  • Coal River Folklife Collection (AFC 1999/008)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • image

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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The American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Copy photographs of numerous historical still photographs owned by Woody Boggs and Rick Bradford were made and are reproduced here with permission of the owners.

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Credit line

Coal River Folklife Project collection (AFC 1999/008), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. House in Montcoal, West Virginia. Montcoal Raleigh County West Virginia, 1996. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000174/.

APA citation style:

Eiler, L. S. (1996) House in Montcoal, West Virginia. Montcoal Raleigh County West Virginia, 1996. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000174/.

MLA citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. House in Montcoal, West Virginia. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/cmns000174/>.