Jenkinjones, West Virginia

In about 2010, I became interested in the coal town of Jenkinjones, located in McDowell County West Virginia. Jenkinjones is the namesake for a Welshman named, curiously, Jenkin Jones. He was one of the pioneers of what came to be called the Pocahontas Coalfield. His vision was made real by a company that dominated the coalfield, Pocahontas Fuel.

Pocahontas Fuel Office in Jenkinjones, West Virginia

So, why Jenkinjones? It had a cool sounding name, and it had the exact things that just threw all of the pre conceived ideas of a coal town up in the air. The Pocahontas Coalfield meant WEALTH, POWER and above all else, an incredible chance to show success to your competition. HOW does one do that? Why, they hire a European trained architect and build INCREDIBLE structures. The Pocahontas Fuel Offices, at Jenkinjones, reside to date on the National Register of Historic Places....

They do this in the middle of the remote roads and towns of McDowell County West Virginia. Neoclassical revivalist architecture which is in some instances being reclaimed by nature.

Detail of Office Corner

The offices are GROSSLY vandalized and defiant. Even after the coal was mined out, the energy of work, and its obvious former wealth are still visible.....

Who were they? 

View through Office Window at Jenkinjones

Where are they?

Inside the Office at Jenkinjones

Below is coalclops......Actually, these are the little coal storage bins in front of an average home in Jenkinjones. Thought I would get a closer look. I honestly hope folks remember using these.

DIET RITE........Bland cola, but it was nice to see the original colors in the sign...

THIS building is rather specioal also in Jenkinjones. It is the local UMWA Union Hall for Jenkinjones. PAST its prime, but I had to stop, and just look and wonder what was said in that building?? 

The Union Halls neighbor, The Walker Store. I had to get this pic, because one day, that sign would fade.

The wood trestle, located on wood trestle road......

Below is the wonderfully maintained church, just at the trestle

Most, never think, behind the trestle, the attachment at the center of the trestle is where a brave soul would stand

SO, I did a stupid thing, I managed to get to the top and while I had a ball again, yeah, I am not doing this again

There are no words, the two buildings below again show the ever present Pocahontas Fuel. The store and post office both reside on the National Register of Historic places.

Photographing Coal Towns

Coal towns and America........images that are near iconic, BUT I ask, are they accurate? A coal town, by definition was created to house coal miners so they could live in close distance to a coal mine. LEST WE FORGET, THEY MINE THAT COAL.

Bartley West Virginia Coal Miners Memorial

I am disappointed when I look at coal town photography geared towards the perspective of the average American who has by and large NEVER been to a coal town, or really any industrial town. The images are almost always a pic of a man, or several men emerging from a coal mine, covered in coal dust and carrying their dinner bucket. That's vital, BUT thats also where the average American has flash frozen the coal town. Its one dimension. One small idiom, and it invites the usual discourse.

The hipster, the cool person who thrives on the genre of industrial decay, music or photos, provides the real fix. Hey, its a company town.....Photos are an explosion of stark black and whites, apathy, decay, an out of control spiral that is only made silent by a bulldozer, in these places, these "similiar" places, they seek an answer to the morbidly curious, LOOK AT WHAT was LEFT BEHIND.

Bartley Tipple Bottom, Bartley West Virginia

There is no flesh, no life, no death, its just a post industrial hibernation.......I detest this. Its not by intention. MOST people crave the ability to categorize. It brings comfort. NOT only can a person create control, they can create knowledge...Its easy, its natural and its also false.

I decided in 2003 to start easy. I went back to my Moms coal town. Whitby, West Virginia. I played there many many Summers, I LOVED IT. THEN, the big buzz kill. Its not that the coal industry was gonna croak, I knew that. Its NOT the fact that you cant go home again, I knew that. It was the literal death of a place I knew. The death was not so hard, honestly, compared to the attitudes I encountered afterwards. People NEED to look at any one place, in this instance a coal town, and just "know" what it was.......

11 years later, I try to challenge that with the photographs I take. I am asking not to look at what is, or what was...I am asking: What could have been here? Who were they? How many? How much? How did they play, or die, or worship?........It is now time to show people just how different each place really was...Come by and look.......Each of these places is an invitation.

Boissevain VA, Pocahontas Fuel Company Store