Appalachia the Town
Coal mining has long meant jobs and uncertainty in the town of Appalachia, Virginia. As a mining company re-opened a historic coal operation, townspeople were ambivalent, their gaze fixed on a more sustainable future.
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Pardee Coal Mine.
Appalachia, the town, is as symbolic in name as it is to the Appalachian region’s rise and fall at the hands of the coal industry. Once a bustling hub where train lines converged and the coal industry thrived, residents think of the town as the geographic and spiritual heart of the Appalachian region.
When word spread through the historic town of Appalachia, Virginia, that the Pardee coal mine up the mountain had begun rebuilding and was preparing to dig new tunnels, few could forget the abrupt closure and layoff of workers by the previous owners.
“A lot of people, when they hear the word Appalachia, they think of the Appalachian region. They don't think of the town of Appalachia, but the town of Appalachia symbolises the Appalachian region"
“Appalachia is like the center of a spider web and all of these coal camps around, In the heyday here, say the 40s, 50s, 60s on their payday, they would come into Appalachia. We had five car dealerships here in town at one time, three jewellery stores, two movie theaters.”
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Preacher Nick Brewer, Appalachia First Baptist Church
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Cynan Lloyd-Hughes and Lloyd ‘Tiger’ Adams.
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An abandoned coal mine portal on mine road to the new location for the Pardee coal mine.
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I grew up in Pardee. My Dad was superintendent at the Pardee mine. We lived just outside of the coal camp in a single wide trailer. Now the actual coal camp at Pardee is gone. I was fifteen when we moved to an apartment down here on Main Street. We'd sit in the windows and watch traffic, at the time you could walk to the post office, the grocery store, the gas station and the high school.
Appalachia has always had to fight for what they've got. The tax and population has been trending down - especially the population. We've lost all the coal jobs, so people have had to move. Right now we're seeing a steadying of that number, when somebody is moving out now, we've got somebody moving back in. I've been told it's people wanting to get away from the cities, to slow back down. The houses have been selling and I've noticed the county has changed the assessment of them up a little bit.
I'm tickled to death about the mine re-opening. Anytime there's coal being mined, it's going to have an effect on us because it increases our funding.
Clerk treasurer for the town of Appalachia,Yvonne Isom, Town Clerks Office, Appalachia, VA.
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Downtown Appalachia, Virginia.
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A tattoo Winston Caudill got as a dare when he started his first coal mining job.
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Eric 'Tiny' Sturgill inside the Pardee coal preparation plant, Appalachia, Virginia
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Steve Witt, Mine operator at the coal preparation plant, Pardee Virginia.
Until recently, the town was on a familiar downward spiral: a coal town loses its primary industry, unemployment skyrockets, residents leave, the tax base plummets, funding for basic town functions dries up, and the school, grocery store, bank, police, and fire departments all fade away.
Drug use and crime rates spike, and “For Rent” signs become permanent fixtures in storefronts.
So, as the first load of coal rolled through town from the new mine, the town’s leaders remained focused on diversifying the economy, repairing its infrastructure, and creating a vibrant downtown for its residents long after the next coal boom-and-bust cycle plays out.
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Pardee swimming pool was filled with dirt and prepared for demolition after the city could not afford to pay for maintenance.
"I was born and raised here, lived here thirty two years, graduated high school, went to work at a prison and I've been doing this since I left the prison. There's nothing else really around here. I’ve got four kids, my wife's a school teacher, I live a simple life I guess. Every time you think it's getting better, they come out with some new drug that you can make in your basement. It's sort of sad that people I went to school with were good kids, from good families and I'm out here dealing with them everyday." There's a huge problem with drugs, not only in Appalachia, but in the whole county. I guess that comes from nobody having jobs, so I guess they resort to drugs."
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Cody Bishop, wise county police officer, in Appalachia, Virginia.
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A local resident fills out an employment application form at the Pardee coal mine.
"I grew up here, went to Appalachia high school when it was still Appalachia high school, I was the salutatorian of my class. My sister was Miss Appalachia, and my brother’s a professional golfer now. We did well, I stayed around here for a while and then left and went through some hard times. I took the silver spoon out of my mouth and started shooting dope out of it…Now I’m finishing my degree and trying to work here. My husband and I are small business owners. He finished up his paralegal course work in prison and jail, so we do a lot of inmate services, helping inmates file paperwork and helping their families navigate the system."
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Tracy Nicole Dalton out the front of her family home in the Stonega coal camp area, Appalachia, Virginia.
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Adam Harris, Deacon, with his family in the Macedonia Baptist Church, Appalachia, Virginia.
"A lot of people say that the coal mines leaving was a horrible thing. But that's just if you look at it in a certain way as far as the industry. But if you look at it in a way of the health conditions that these coal miners are in, with me working in the pharmacy field, I have a lot of patients who have black lung, a lot of patients who have emphysema, a lot of patients who their backs, their knees, these men and women are broken from the mines…Now with the mines coming back to Pardee, there's a lot that comes along with that, that people don't understand, that people don't want to think about."
"There's not been anything to this extent around these parts in a really long time. ....It's really brought a lot of excitement to people around here. A lot of store owners, business owners, they're really hoping that everything pans out. I'm the mine superintendent. I oversee the underground mine, hopefully we'll get another one started and get another two or three crews of men. We've been getting a lot of resumes and people coming to the mine applying for jobs. I'm from Harlan County. Born and raised, I'm fourth generation coal mining, I went to work underground straight out of high school. It's been a really good living for me and my family. We've had good times and hard times. It looks like things are starting to pick back up."
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Luther Turner, underground mine superintendent, Pardee coal mine.
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Mine maps on the office hallway depicts previous underground workings and plans for the new mine at Pardee coal mine.
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Fred Lunsford, town supervisor, in his office at the town clerks office in Appalachia, Virginia.
"There's a lot of good in these mountains. I know that we’ve fallen on hard times recently because the coal mining industry has fallen to the wayside. But we are a resilient type of people and we found ways to make things work with what we have…. We're trying to steer away from dependency on coal, if you will. We're trying to find other ways to survive. And so while we appreciate the Pardee thing, it's not a sustainable source of revenue, we do appreciate it, but we still have to keep looking for some other source of revenue."
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A loaded coal train leaves Appalachia, Virginia.
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Town fishing derby and Lions club barbeque on the banks of the Powell River, Appalachia, Virginia
"We're just taking small steps every day. When we started this council in 2020 during COVID, we wanted to accomplish something every month at every meeting. Whether it be small or large. Some of our water sewer lines are over a hundred years old, so we've got very low water pressure and a lot of sewer problems. So getting this infrastructure fixed is a big accomplishment for us, it’s something that needed to be done in this town for 30, 40 years. So we hope to get those projects completed this year and that should help attract more people to our town as residents. And we really need more residents here to increase our tax base. And we do have people moving into Appalachia, seems like monthly, from other areas of the country."
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Chris Williams, Town Mayor and main street business president, sits with his team in his restaurant, black bear barbecue, Appalachia VA.
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A town water tank bears the emblem of the now closed high school football team on the mountain top above the town of Appalachia, Virginia
"It was 1991, I went to work, just like any other night and we started pulling pillars and the top fell on me. We pulled the last row of bolts and the top fell on me and then it pinned me. And then it went downhill after that...I loved the mines. But it seemed like you never really could get ahead, because once you save up, they'd either strike or you’d get laid off. And then you'd have to start all over again."
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James Ramey, security guard at the Pardee coal operation gate.
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Winston Caudill, new hire at the Pardee coal mine.
"Sometimes the downs can be pretty, pretty rough. You get laid off or something unexpected. We went through the whole Blackjewel thing, we were working well and then they ended up filing bankruptcy, that was the first time I ever got laid off….It was just horror, to think that you put that kind of effort and that kind of time into something and then. But that just shows you how fast they just don't give two shits. They'll just up and leave, things happen without any kind of warning."
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Ben Noe, mine superintendent, measures the coal seam height where they will start to dig the first portal into the side of the mountain at Pardee coal mine.
A Path Toward Stability
Many post-coal towns in the region work tirelessly to reinvent and diversify their economies. However, recent global economic pressures have caused coal prices to skyrocket, and a familiar golden carrot of coal prosperity has returned as a distraction to this work.
I’ve been documenting the town of Appalachia and the reopening of the Pardee coal mine since November 2021. The town’s leaders realize there’s no silver bullet to return prosperity—rather, many small additions and improvements that, in sum, seem to be stabilizing the town’s population for the first time in decades.
"I feel like Appalachia, the town and probably the region, too, has just been on a downward spiral, you know, drugs and the economy. And I feel like it’s trying to make a comeback. A few people at a time trying to give it a better name. And I think that's what it will take, just a few people caring and trying to do what they can." - Shelby "My grandpa, both his grandpas got killed in the mines, they got crushed. And my great grandfather, the one I'm named after, he started in the mines when he was 13. Dad worked in the mines for over ten years and then he got crushed by two shuttle cars. It's always fed us, but it's always got everybody hurt too …" - Tommy
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(L)Shelby Adkins and Tommy Adkins with their daughter at their dog grooming business several doors down main street from their recently opened cafe.
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Marla Weitzman with a freshly baked cheesecake in her new bakery, Marla's Bread in Appalachia, Virginia.
"I've been baking my whole life, but the last ten years I've been selling my stuff at farmers markets. I wanted to expand. I got a $6000 grant to buy equipment, I also borrowed money from the Industrial Development Fund to buy the building and do improvements."
"I believe that people in this region, where my family came from, might need some avenues for healing and growth. It may seem silly to others, but it doesn’t to me. I want to help people come back up. When you fall into a dark place, most people don’t really come back. If you apply the story of when a seed is planted, it’s in a dark place too. But you can’t give up, you’ve got to keep growing. And so, I don’t believe this town will ever give up. I don’t think their spirit will allow them to."
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Anita Muller, co-owner of Elevated Garden, stands with her family in the community garden they've started in Appalachia, Virginia.
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A model railway in one of the classrooms at the now closed Appalachia High School now used by the lonesome pine model railroad club, Appalachia, Virginia.
"I was born and raised here. My dad was a coal miner. My brother was a coal miner and I had a brother also that was on the railroad. [The school] integrated about the time they built the roads at the railroad crossing. We used to live at a house where we'd hear the train come across right in front of the house and it seemed like it'd just shake the house. I just want to give back and try to be a part of what this town is about. I had six kids that I raised. None of them work in coal and to be honest with you, I guess I'm kind of glad."
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Lions club member Gary Williams with his grandchildren at the fishing derby in Appalachia, Virginia
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Runners ready themselves for the start of the Appalachia Railway Days 5km fun run.
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Jonathan Sparks from Flemington West Virginia, participates in a war game air-soft competition that brought eighty competitors to the now closed Appalachia high school in Appalachia, Virginia.
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Cruise night' event on main street, Appalachia Virginia.
"I'm really hoping I can see my career out here. But we'll see what happens."
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Paul 'Turtle' Jesse, mechanic (L), sits with Ben Noe, surface superintendent at the Pardee coal preparation plant.
Chapter 11
In December 2024, the Pardee Mine filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Coal prices had plummeted in 2023 and remained low, and the company that initially invested in the venture—planning to support it for many years—decided to withdraw. However, the mine’s management remains hopeful that they will secure a new backer and reopen operations.
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A pile of coal in the mountains above Appalachia next to the Osaka Mine, Appalachia, Virginia.
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Picture of a continuous miner underground on the wall of the closed United Mine Workers office on Main Street, Appalachia, Virginia.
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Appalachia, Virginia