Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Workforce Training Helps Preserve Historic New River Gorge Depot

A group from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center is working with staff at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve to restore its historic Thurmond Depot.

The building is an old railroad depot built at the beginning of the 20th century during Thurmond’s heyday as a railroad town. Its location on the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad meant the depot became an entry point for regional business during the Industrial Revolution.

“In 1910, the Thurman Depot had more freight revenue than any other depot on the entire Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; it served roughly 70,000 passengers in that time period, in its heyday,” Chief of Interpretation and Visitor Services Eve West said. “It was also a really important area just as a maintenance area for the steam locomotives.”

The Thurmond Depot was added to the National Register for Historic Places in 1984 before reopening as a visitors center for the National Park a decade later, in 1995.

The restoration of the depot doubles as a workforce training program. The national initiative, called the Campaign for the Historic Trades, helps train park workers on how to best preserve historical buildings.

“One of our mandates, of course, is to preserve the natural scenic objects and historic objects as well,” West said. “This is part of what we do in the National Park Service just to keep these stories alive.”

The program began preliminary upkeep on the structure as part of the training, which included the preservation and repair of windows, doors and wood siding. Old paint was also scraped off and replaced with a new coat, in keeping with its historic appearance.

“We have just barely scratched the surface of learning how to do things now,” West said. “And so we’re gonna continue on and put some of those new skills to action.”

The first phase of training is complete and restoration work will continue throughout the summer and fall.

The Thurmond Depot is open to visitors Memorial Day through Labor Day.

January 29, 1873: Chesapeake & Ohio Completed

On January 29, 1873, railroad officials gathered at Hawks Nest in Fayette County to drive the last spike on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. The C&O, as it was known, connected the Ohio River with the Atlantic Ocean and gave birth to the modern coal and timber industries in southern West Virginia.

The southern West Virginia leg of the railroad was one of the great engineering feats of the late 19^th century. More than 7,000 men—including many African Americans—laid track through the New River Gorge and cut tunnels through the mountains between Hinton and Covington, Virginia. One of America’s most popular folk songs emerged from construction of the C&O’s Great Bend Tunnel in Summers County. It recounts how the “steel-drivin’ man” “John Henry” defeated a steam drill in a contest of man versus machine.

After its initial completion, the C&O kept expanding and connected West Virginia resources with markets in the Midwest and the Great Lakes. Thanks to its coal traffic, the C&O continued to thrive in the 20^th century while many other railroads failed. Today, the remaining C&O lines are part of CSX Transportation.

November 3, 1828: Birthday of Surveyor-Geologist Jedediah Hotchkiss

Jedediah Hotchkiss was born in Windsor, New York, on November 3, 1828. He also developed an interest in geology and surveying while teaching school in Augusta County, Virginia. When the Civil War broke out, Hotchkiss enlisted in the Confederate army and used his mapmaking skills to help “Stonewall” Jackson’s brilliant Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

August 4, 1805: Railroader Ralph Swinburn Born in England

Railroader Ralph Swinburn was born in England on August 4, 1805.

As a boy, he was working on a coal-hauling railway, when he met George Stephenson, a pioneer in steam locomotives. This friendship steered Swinburn toward a career in railway civil engineering—first in England, then in America.

He emigrated to the United States in 1851 and landed a job with the Winifrede Mining and Manufacturing Company in Kanawha County. Winifrede was one of the earliest coal operations in present West Virginia.

Swinburn built a narrow-gauge railroad that ran from the Winifrede mines to a barge facility on the Kanawha River. It also was one of the region’s earliest railroads, preceding the mainline Chesapeake and Ohio Railway by two decades. Swinburn soon built another railroad to serve coal mines along nearby Paint Creek. These achievements established him as possibly the first railroad engineer in Western Virginia.

He retired in 1855, only four years after his arrival in America. He purchased land southwest of Charleston, where he lived the rest of his life as a farmer. Ralph Swinburn died in 1895 at age 89.

The Big Bend Completed: Sept. 12, 1872

The Great Bend Tunnel, also known as the Big Bend, was completed in present-day Summers County on September 12, 1872.

At more than a mile long, it cut off a seven-mile meander of the Greenbrier River and was the longest tunnel on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

About 800 men—many of them African-Americans—worked on the tunnel’s construction. The crew drilled through hard red shale that disintegrated when exposed to air, causing many rockfalls and landslides. Although the exact number of deaths will never be known, many construction workers lost their lives on the project.

Great Bend’s importance to railroad construction is undeniable, but the primary reason we remember the tunnel is a bit more debatable. According to tradition, the tunnel is where John Henry defeated a steam drill, becoming one of the world’s best-known folk heroes. While it’s not known for certain whether John Henry was a real person or whether he achieved his immortality at Great Bend, it’s clear that this heroic story of man over machine resonated with a 19^th-century America that was rapidly being transformed by modern technology.

Centennial Train Concludes Tour of State: Sept. 2, 1963

On September 2, 1963, the Centennial exhibits train wrapped up its tour of West Virginia with a stop in South Charleston.

During the summer of 1963, the nine-car train had reached more West Virginians than any other part of our state’s Centennial celebration.

It was a collaboration among the Centennial Commission and leading railroads, including the Chesapeake & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, Norfolk & Western, New York Central, and the Pennsylvania.

Former baggage cars were outfitted with exhibits depicting West Virginia history, tourism, agriculture, resources, industry, arts and crafts, folklore, and education.

Starting at Washington on Memorial Day weekend, the train traveled to every region of West Virginia by Labor Day. More than 300,000 visitors took in the exhibits, with a one-day record of nearly 6,000 in Huntington.

The most famous—and controversial—piece of art on board was West Virginia Moon by WVU art professor Joe Moss. Made from weathered boards, an old screen door, and some leftover paint, Moss’s work won first prize for a painting by a West Virginia artist. You can now see West Virginia Moon on display in the West Virginia State Museum.