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Part 1: The Pine Creek Branch
Beginning in the late 19th Century, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway was actively expanding into the coal rich regions of Southern West Virginia. Branch lines running deep into coal country began springing up throughout the state resulting in a population boom as people came looking for work in the mines. Along the railroad, numerous mining communities appeared and soon people and money were flowing at a rate not seen anywhere else in the country. Bramwell, West Virginia, a boom town in McDowell County, was once considered to have the most millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world. One such boom town that grew to become a major player in the coal fields was Omar, West Virginia. Named after James Omar Cole, an extensive landowner in Logan County, Omar would go on to become an expansive coal mining town featuring a movie theater, bank, gentleman's club, and of course, a company store. For a mining town to truly be considered a mining town, a coal company had to have some sense of economic and cultural control over the area. The coal company that would first call Omar home was the Main Island Creek Coal Company.
On November 2nd, 1907, the Logan & Southern Railroad Company was incorporated under the laws of West Virginia to operate a standard gauge common carrier railroad from Monitor Junction, West Virginia, south through the town of Omar terminating near Barnabas, West Virginia. The railroad was fully owned by two coal companies, the Monitor Coal & Coke Company and the Yuma Coal & Coke Company. Only about 1.2 miles had been constructed when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway leased the line, signing the agreement on March 25th, 1912. The existing track was constructed in February of 1912 and extended from Monitor Junction, West Virginia, to Monitor, West Virginia, where the Monitor Coal & Coke Company's operations were located. On April 1st, 1912, the Chesapeake & Ohio officially began operations on the Logan & Southern. Construction of the remaining 8.59 mile section to Barnabas was finished around 1914 or 1915. With the extension of the Logan & Southern to Omar and Barnabas, the Main Island Creek Coal Company was able to grow and thrive. By 1915, the company had twenty one individual coal mines operating in the vicinity of Omar.
On October 16th, 1915, the magazine Railway Review mentions that the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway had extended its Pine Creek Branch an eighth of a mile. This was the first stage of construction of what would come to be known as the C&O's Pine Creek Subdivision. The first business on this short coal branch was the Main Island Creek Coal Company's Mine No. 5 and No. 6 tipple. In the April 7th, 1928, edition of the magazine Railway Age it is mentioned that the Chesapeake & Ohio had once again extended its Pine Creek Branch, this time 4.48 miles, to a new coal tipple owned by the Island Creek Coal Company. Note that the Island Creek Coal Company and the Main Island Creek Coal Company were two separate entities. The new tipple and mine constructed by the Island Creek Coal Co. was named Holden No. 22 and soon, a whole community formed around this new facility.
April 24th, 1960 C&O timetable Huntington Division #149 listing the Pine Creek Subdivision.
Part 2: The Towns Along the Line
Omar:
The division point for the Pine Creek Subdivision, Omar was once a hub for mining activity. The major coal operator in Omar was the Main Island Creek Coal Company. This firm derived its name from Island Creek which flows through Omar. Omar became famous in the 1940s thanks to a number of published photographs depicting miners carrying out their lives in and around the town. Many of these miners were employed by the Pine Creek Branch's first coal facility, Omar No. 5. Today, Omar continues to host a decent number of citizens, some still involved in the mining industry. Trains also continue to run through Omar to Coal-Mac, LLC's Holden No. 22 loadout at the head of Pine Creek to the west of town. At one point, trains also ran south to the former Stirratt No. 19 and No. 15 plants, although these facilities have since closed.
The only coal operation to exist on the Pine Creek Subdivision in the vicinity of Omar was the aforementioned Main Island Creek Coal Company's No. 5 and No. 6 Tipple. The Main Island Creek Coal Co. was organized by John Laing and associates in January of 1914 to develop 27,000 acres of coal lands in Logan County, West Virginia, specifically on Main Island Creek. These lands were owned by the Cole & Crane Land Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. At organization, ten mines were planned for development with six being operational by 1915, these included the No. 5 and No. 6 mines which fed into the plant at Omar. The firm was initially organized with an authorized capital stock of $500,000, and was occasionally increased as the company expanded. Poor's Manual of Industrials' lists the directors of the company in 1914 as John Laing, R. G. Hubbard, W. A. Brown, James Stirratt, J. E. Cox, J. F. Prince, O. O. Cooper, J. F. Johnson, C. C. Hale, A. J. Dalton, and Clinton Crane. James Stirratt is the eponym for the town of Stirratt, West Virginia, which hosted a number of Main Island Creek Coal Co. mines. In 1915, the No. 5 and No. 6 mines in Omar produced and shipped a combined 108,658 tons of coal. The tipple on Pine Creek that processed the coal from these two mines was unique in that it stretched across the Pine Creek valley to reach two individual tramways from the No. 5 and No. 6 mines. In May of 1923, the Main Island Creek Coal Corporation was organized to absorb a number of John Laing properties including the Main Island Creek Coal Co. This new firm was chartered with an authorized capital stock of $25,000,000. This new name was not adopted very long as, according to the August 2nd, 1924 edition of Seward's Journal, the Main Island Creek Coal Company was sold to the West Virginia Coal & Coke Company for $4,500,000 on July 31s, 1924. twenty one mines are listed to have been under Main Island Creek Coal ownership at the time of sale, Mine No. 5 and No. 6 included. The West Virginia Coal & Coke Company, operating out of Elkins, West Virginia, would continue operating Mine No. 5 and No. 6 under the same name. In 1927, the No. 6 Mine closed permanently. The next year, the West Virginia Coal & Coke Company was reorganized as the West Virginia Coal & Coke Corporation. The West Virginia Coal & Coke Corp. continued to operate the Mine No. 5 complex for the next two a half decades until late 1954 when coal sales giant A. T. Massey purchased the company outright. Now operated by Massey's Omar Mining Company, the Mine No. 5 complex would operate for a few more years before finally closing permanently during the 1968 fiscal year. The tipple continued to stand into the 1970s.
Here is a fascinating newspaper snippet taken from the February 27th, 1931 edition of the Logan Banner discussing the improvements to the Mine No. 5 complex.
The Logan Banner (1931)
Here is a fascinating very early look at what was probably still Main Island Creek Coal Company's Mine No. 5 tipple. Note that the painting on the side of the facade says "Mine No. 5-6". Although being referenced at the Mine No. 5 complex later in its life, the mine also processed coal from Mine No. 6 while that mine was still producing. Note the tramway tracks to the left.
Diana Ellis
Here is a photograph of the modernized West Virginia Coal & Coke Corporation Mine No. 5 tipple and prep plant taken around 1935. Although referred to as the Mine No. 5 preparation plant for most of its existence, the facility is also documented as having processed coal mined at Mine No. 6, Mine No. 10 and Mine No. 11. The building lasted into the 1970s
The Explosives Engineer (1935)
Here is a fascinating map displaying the various mines operated by the West Virginia Coal & Coke Corporation around 1935. Note the No. 5 Mine located on Pine Creek. This is the facility served by the Chesapeake & Ohio on the Pine Creek Branch. In a mid 50s list of coal mines served by the C&O, this facility is referenced as Omar No. 5.
The Explosives Engineer (1935)
Unbelievably, the Mine No. 5 tipple survived into at least 1970 as seen in this color image. The branch was out of service at this point and would remain so until the "new and improved" Holden No. 22 preparation plant was built in 1979.
Matthew TrosperPine Creek:
Between the Main Island Creek Coal Company's operations in Omar, West Virginia, and the head of Pine Creek, there were never any major coal producers. At the head of the creek however, one of the largest and most infamous operations in all of Logan County once existed. Along with this mining facility, a large and modern mining community once existed which housed thousands of miners and their families. Today, little remains of this town although coal mining continues in the area. Since the 1960s, the head of the Pine Creek has simply been referred to as Pine Creek, West Virginia, but this location has been historically known as Holden No. 22. This name reflects the coal mine and tipple that allowed for the town's founding, prosperity, and eventual tragedy.
When the Island Creek Coal Company decided to develop a new mine at the head of Pine Creek, West Virginia, in the early 1920s, nothing existed. No railroad, no houses, no electricity, no anything. This led to a unique opportunity for the Island Creek Coal Co. to design and construct a "perfect" company town called "Holden No. 22", after the mine that was actively being bored. The Island Creek Coal Co., possibly the largest and most productive mining firm to operate in all of Logan County, was incorporated in October of 1910, to assume the coal operations of the United States Coal & Oil Company. Upon this corporate assimilation, the Island Creek Coal Co. assumed 26,245 acres of coal lands and mines. Ten mines were included in this merger of which eight were currently active. Although this acreage was considered massive in 1910, this number pales in comparison to the amount of land owned by the firm at its mightiest. Back to Pine Creek, around 1925, a road was constructed to the new community of Holden No. 22 from Omar. Following this road was the Chesapeake & Ohio's Pine Creek Subdivision, which arrived around 1927. That same year, the Holden No. 22 mine and preparation plant was officially completed. In the 1928 fiscal year, the first full year of operation, 144,165 tons of coal were processed. The Public Service Commission mentions that on March 16th, 1928, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway reimbursed the Island Creek Coal Company $15.21 for six loaded coal cars that had been moved from the Island Creek Holden No. 22 Mine. For thirty years, Island Creek's No. 22 Mine was consistently one of Island Creek's top producing mines. However, all good things must eventually come to an end. On March 8th, 1960, disaster struck the community of Holden No. 22. Around 8:30 A.M. that morning, a fire was discovered in No. 22 that would lead to the deaths of 18 men. This tragedy served as a major catalyst in the ultimate closure of Island Creek No. 22 which would only go on to produce coal for a few more years. In the 1965 edition of Mineral Yearbook it is noted that Island Creek Mine No. 22 was closed and abandoned sometime that year. 60,322 tons of coal were processed that year before the final shut down. In a 1966 map of all the tipples served by the Chesapeake & Ohio, only Omar Mining Company's Mine No. 5 is listed as active on the Pine Creek Subdivision.
With both Island Creek Coal's No. 22 Mine and Omar Mining Company's No. 5 Mine abandoned, the C&O's Pine Creek Subdivision sat dormant. This was until 1979 when a new preparation plant was built on the land once home to the original Holden No. 22 tipple. In homage of the historic ground, this new facility was also named Holden No. 22. Built by the J. O. Lively Construction Company, this new preparation plant and loadout were initially owned by the Island Creek Coal Company, the same enterprise that constructed the original tipple back in the 1920s. The preparation plant processed coal from a number of local contractors participating in surface mining. On December 29th, 1981, ownership of the power plant and loadout facility were transferred to the recently organized Enoxy Coal, Inc. This firm was organized on November 5th, 1981, as a partnership between Island Creek and the Italian Government. There are still clear references to when the plant was owned by Enoxy, for example, milepost CMF 6.0 is still called Enoxy, WV, by CSX. In May of 1985, the Holden No. 22 plant, now called "Enoxy 22" loaded approximately 1,233 cars of coal. In 1989, the partnership between Island Creek and Italy ended and Holden No. 22 returned back to the Island Creek Coal Co. Apparently, Island Creek spun off the property to Arch Mineral Corporation sometime between 1990 and 1995. This sale did not include the preparation plant or loadout, both of which were sold to contractor Talon Resources, Inc. Between 1995 and 1999, the Holden No. 22 prep plant processed coal mainly from Talon's Coalburg No. 1 Mine. In 1996, the Coalburg No. 1 Mine produced 655,533 tons of coal. When the mine closed in 1999, the facility was sold to Ace Trucking, Inc., another local contractor. Ownership by Ace was short lived as in 2000, the plant was sold once again to Rio Group, Inc., yet another contractor. In 2000, Rio Group, Inc. opened the Holden No. 22 Surface Mine, which was located adjacent to the facility. This strip mine continued operating into 2020, after multiple different ownership changes. In 2003, the mine and facility were officially under the control of Arch Coal, Inc., the successor to Arch Mineral Corp. The prep plant and surface mine were operated under the Coal-Mac, Inc. banner, a subsidiary of Arch that mainly controlled mines in Kentucky. In 2010, the Holden No. 22 Surface Mine produced 3,081,473 tons of coal. On January 19th, 2017, Arch Coal reorganized Coal-Mac, Inc. as Coal-Mac, LLC. This may have been caused by Arch Coal's bankruptcy the previous year. On December 13th, 2019, Arch Coal, Inc. spun off Coal-Mac, LLC, selling the company and all its assets to coal magnate Mitch Potter. The Potter led Coal-Mac, LLC, continued to operate the Holden No. 22 Surface Mine and preparation plant until 2020. After that year, Coal-Mac opened the Duty Branch Mine which continues supplying the facility today. A number of local contractors also feed into the No. 22 preparation plant, one such firm is the Jet Coal Company, which operates a deep mine on the property of the former Omar No. 5 plant near Omar, West Virginia. Under Potter, the No. 22 plant appears to have many years of productivity left.
In 1981, two years after the construction of the new and improved Holden No. 22 preparation plant, the Hobet Mining & Construction Company opened a new facility just west, called the Pine Creek Complex. This facility was located at milepost CMF 6.0, about 7/10ths of a mile west of the Holden plant. The Hobet Mining & Construction Co. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ashland Coal, Inc. In conjunction with the opening of the Pine Creek Complex, the Hobet No. 7 Surface Mine began production. This mine would be the main producer for the Pine Creek prep plant and loadout for the entirety of the operation's existence. In 1983, Hobet No. 7 produced 351,752 tons of coal. During the 1988 fiscal year, the Hobet Mining & Construction Co. became Hobet Mining, Inc. On July 1st, 1997, Ashland Coal, Inc. was merged into the Arch Mineral Corporation forming Arch Coal, Inc. The December 31st, 1997 SEC report states that the Hobet No. 7 mine was predicted to produce around 1,400,000 tons of coal in 1998 before permanently shutting down. By 2003, the Pine Creek prep plant and loadout were demolished with the land being reclaimed. The demise of this plant can presumably be attributed to the merger of Ashland Coal and Arch Mineral as now both the Pine Creek prep plant and Holden No. 22 prep plant were owned by the same enterprise.
Today, the Pine Creek Sub continues to see trains just about once a week on average. Just as it's been for 100 years, residents of Pine Creek continue to experience the movement of black diamonds from mine to market. Coal-Mac's Holden No. 22 plant ships a mix of 110 car export trains as well as the occasion utility coal train. The export trains typically terminate at Kinder Morgan's Pier IX terminal in Newport News, Virginia, while the utility trains run to Duke Power's Terrell Steam Plant in Brice, North Carolina, near Charlotte. How long Holden No. 22 continues to ship coal is anyone's guess but for now, what has been happening at the head of Pine Creek for a century continues on.
A single crispy CSX ET44AH leads mine run R211-29 along Pine Creek in Southern West Virginia at 11:43 A.M. on Friday, December 29th, 2023. Running on the CSX Pine Creek Subdivision, this train of 107 empties is heading to Coal-Mac LLC's Holden No. 22 loadout at the head of the creek for loading. R211 is the typical morning mine run out of Peach Creek, West Virginia, just north of Logan, and goes on duty at 6:00 A.M. Unfortunately, I slept in that day and so wasn't able to chase him all the way down the Logan & Southern Subdivision. Thankfully, I was able to catch up to him along the Pine Creek Sub where I chased him to the mine. At this point, the train is about a mile out from the loadout.
*Nick A. Jobe Photograph*
Coal-Mac LLC's Holden No. 22 complex sits under the clouds on a cold December morning awaiting the arrival of CSX R211-29 and 107 empty coal cars due for loading. Built in 1979, this plant brought about the revival of the Pine Creek Sub and continues to be the sole reason for the lines existence with Hobet No. 7 now razed. The facility sits on the ground once home to the original Island Creek Coal Company Holden No. 22 tipple that operated from 1927 to 1965. Hobet No. 7 was located further down the creek beyond where the flood loader is located in this image. Not much has changed in this December 29th, 2023, image since the plant opened 46 years ago.
*Nick A. Jobe Photograph*
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