Loup Creek Colliery Company

As the timber was being depleted, Mr. Abram Hewitt was thinking of selling the Loup Creek property and retiring.  Will Page continued to encourage him to hang on to the property and develop it fully.  Mr. Page was a transplanted Virginian but had become an advocate of growth and development in the southern West Virginia coalfields.  Page was most interested in developing the areas between the C&O and the N&W railroads, especially the large coalfields around Beckley and the Winding Gulf region.  As a mining engineer Mr. Page stayed abreast of the developments and surveys being conducted in the area and he knew of the shape, size, thickness and quality of the Beckley seam that underlies the Winding Gulf district.

By January 1905 the Beehive coke ovens are nearing completion.  In the background is Murphy's Branch, more commonly known as Coke Oven Hollow, even to this day.

Mr. Hewitt held on to the property but requested that Page find other investors to help develop it.  Mr. Page was well known in West Virginia and New York coal circles as an engineer of considerable merit and he had developed a large network of influential investors who would listen to his proposals.  One of those individuals was Henry H. Rogers who held positions in oil, copper, railroads and a growing interest in West Virginia coal.  Mr. Page convinced him to invest in a new company known as Loup Creek Colliery Company.

In November 1902 this company was granted a charter and papers filed with that application listed Mr. H. H. Rogers as a 50% owner and the Gauley Mountain Coal Company with 50% ownership.  In subsequent testimony to an I.C.C. inquiry in mid 1907, Mr. Page testified that one half of Mr. Roger's interest was owned by "Mr. Hyams...a Boston gentlemen.".  He also stated that in mid 1907 Mr. Rogers had divested himself of all Loup Creek Colliery stock.  Thus by 1907 no one with an interest in the future Virginian Railway held any stock position in the Loup Creek Colliery.  That would change in a few years.

In these 2 C.E. Slayton photos the left most battery of ovens is emitting smoke indicating coking activity.  In the right hand photo we see a couple of "Office Cars" of the Deepwater Railway as indicated by their windows and heating stove pipe.  The Deepwater main line is to the extreme right, heading south (timetable east) around the bend and into Page, WV.

In this later Slayton photo we see many fine details of a working coke oven facility with many ovens active.  In the center is the 3 car set of "Larries", or the charging cars for stoking the ovens.   They are traveling on the track that ran from the coal plant on the right to the top of each battery of ovens.  Even more enlightening are all the Deepwater Railway Stock cars  parked in the loading tracks beside each battery.  Once the "Draw Out Men" emptied the ovens and the coke cooled, it was loaded into Stock cars or even Box cars for transshipment.

Loup Creek Colliery was established to mine the Number 2 Gas and the Eagle seams within the Kanawha field, which was noted for its low volatility coals.  Kanawha coals were of superior coking and steaming quality and were surpassed in BTU content only by some New River and Pocahontas Field coals.  They, as with all Southern West Virginia coals were deemed "smokeless", and were in high demand for both power and home heating uses.  They were especially attractive in the Eastern New England market around the seaports as they were inexpensive when compared to Pennsylvania, Maryland and Northern West Virginia coals which had higher transportation costs.  Rail shipment to Hampton Roads and ocean transport to New England was less expensive than via all rail shipment using PRR, Lehigh and New England, and New Haven routes over the Hudson River Bridge at Poughkeepsie, or via the NY Central through Albany, New York.  In reality the Virginian Railway was built with that fact in mind.

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