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#6 West Logan, West Virginia

By admin | October 10, 2009

West Logan, West Virginia is n Logan country, down route 119 from Charleston, West Virginia, which is a major four lane highway and not as remote as you might think. You get off on route 10 (or go towards the signs for Chief Logan state park).

The park is free and is the site of the former Merril mountain mine. There is a nice little museum with interesting documentaries that cover the history of the Hatfield (West Virginia mountain people in Mingo county) and McCoy’s (Kentucky mountain people in Pike county) fight which started over a timber dispute.

The museum also has exhibits that explain the coal war of 1920 and the battle at Blair Mountain in Logan county which had 5,000 people on a side – miners with red bandannas around their necks (“rednecks”) versus the lawyers and doctors.

In the park I ended up chatting with a young woman from a coal-mining family who was from Logan county. She said that the old-time miners in her family were somewhat contemptuous of the inexperience and lack of “know-how” in many current day miners. Interesting perspective.

I went to dinner at the Parkland diner right at the mouth of the state park. Lots of locals, no tourists.

Restrooms at the museum in the state park: B+

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