The Kaymoor Miners Trail

When someone mentions ghost towns, your mind might conjure up images of dusty saloons and rolling tumbleweeds, However, you don’t have to travel out west to explore an abandoned town. West Virginia is home to a deserted mining town that is hauntingly beautiful — especially during the fall. Consider taking a ghost town day trip this autumn to the village of Kaymoor.

Kaymoor was what is now referred to as a captive mining town. Meaning that the workers of the mine were not paid in the US mint, instead they had what was referred to as the ” Company store dollars” Where they could only spend the money they have risked their life for at the mines own company store.

The workers in the day had to take a mine cart, much like a roller coaster from the top of the gorge to the bottom, we however did not have that luxury and had to hike over 4 miles to this spot.

Kaymoor employed more than 800 workers during peak production. Miners were generally paid bimonthly. In December 1902 Kaymoor paid an average of $30.21 each to 321 workers, of which $19.03 was in cash and $11.58 was in scrip.

From 1880 to 1910, coal mines claimed thousands of lives. The deadliest year in U.S. coal mining history was 1907, when 3,242 deaths occurred. That year, America’s worst mine explosion ever killed 358 miners near Monogah, WV. Kaymoor was spared from explosions. Roof falls, fires, and electrocutions were the chief causes of death in the Kaymoor Mine.