On September 29, 1861, one of the worst floods on record hit the Kanawha River watershed. The river crested nearly 17 feet above flood stage in Charleston and badly damaged the valley’s salt works.
It also affected an innovative system of dams and locks that’d been built in the 1850s to transport cannel coal on the Coal River. The refined oil from cannel coal was highly popular as a source of home-lighting fuel throughout the East.
The eight stone-filled timber-crib dams and locks had been built between 1855 and 1859. The 35 miles of slackwater navigation connected the Boone County community of Peytona with the Kanawha River at St. Albans, just west of Charleston.
During the first year, 400,000 bushels of cannel coal were barged out of the region. That amount doubled in 1860. But the start of the Civil War limited mining, and the September 1861 flood virtually destroyed the lock-and-dam system.
After the war, some repairs were made to it, but, by that time, kerosene had largely replaced cannel coal as a fuel for lighting, and the Coal River navigation system was eventually abandoned.
On a recent sunny weekday, Bill Currey proudly walks among 30 neatly stacked, brightly colored plastic kayaks. Birds chirp merrily, and the soothing sounds of the meandering Coal River permeate the background — nature’s version of a white noise machine.
For the tanned Currey, who also owns an industrial real estate company, being here, on the river, is as good as it gets. His goal is to share this slice of paradise with as many people as will listen.
“Outdoor adventure is where the new world is as far as new tourism opportunities,” Currey said. “And rivers are cheap. We own them. They’re available once they’re cleaned up, you know, they’re an ideal platform to bring people from all over the United States to come.”
But the idea of spending the day kayaking down the 88-mile long Coal River in southern West Virginia was not always so appealing.
Coal was first found on the banks of the Coal River in the mid-1800s, and it’s been mined in these rugged mountains ever since. In 2012, the Coal River was labeled one of the most endangered in the country by conservation group American Rivers, largely due to pollution from the industry from which the river takes its name.
Currey helped found the nonprofit Coal River Group, which has been dedicated to cleaning up the watershed for 16 years.
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Bill Currey, chairman of the nonprofit Coal River Group, stands outside their headquarters in Tornado, West Virginia.
“These beaches are going from black, they used to be covered with coal, to white, and they’re beautiful,” he said. “That’s been a big improvement.”
And now that the river is clean, Currey and others in southern West Virginia are hoping the region’s natural beauty can help revitalize an area long dependent on coal. They’re betting on a different natural resource — outdoor recreation and tourism.
It’s an idea gaining traction across the Ohio Valley, where many coal communities were diversifying their local business base. The coronavirus pandemic added to the challenge, with staggering economic fallout from closures associated with stemming the virus. But several coal-reliant communities and experts the Ohio Valley ReSource spoke to said the pandemic may unlock new opportunities to grow interest in the region and what it has to offer.
The Good
First, the good. People are eager for a safe break from quarantine life and health experts agree, while not devoid of risk, recreating outside where the virus can disperse more easily is safer than many other activities.
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
The Coal River in southern West Virginia.
Case in point, kayaking.
“You know, on a kayak you got a six-foot paddle,” Currey said. “Well, that limits who can get very close to each other.”
Boat launches on the Coal River have been swamped with visitors eager to get into the water on the weekends, he said.
In Norton, Virginia, a small, traditionally coal-reliant community of about 4,000 people that borders eastern Kentucky, traffic counters show people are flocking to the nearby Flag Rock Recreation Area. The city has invested in campgrounds and hiking and mountain biking trails on the mountain as part of its strategy to diversify its economy toward outdoor recreation.
“We’ve constantly been getting contacted by people asking, ‘When are you starting some of your classes or your outdoor activities such as outdoor yoga, or mountain bike rides, group rides and things like that,’” said Fred Ramey, Norton’s city manager. “So, I think there’s a pent-up demand.”
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
Hiking trails in the Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Virginia.
According to a survey from the National Recreation and Park Association released in late May, two in three park and recreation leaders report increased usage of their agency’s parks compared to this time last year, while more than 80 percent report increased usage of their trails.
Increased demand also comes with challenges, especially for group outdoor recreation activities such as whitewater rafting.
Joe Brouse, executive director of the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, which serves Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas and Summers counties in southern West Virginia, said rafting companies missed out on the first part of the season due to coronavirus shutdowns. To comply with social distancing guidelines, they are required to limit things like raft occupancy.
“The logistics of opening, because it’s not just reopening, are very, very challenging,” he said.
But the world’s new COVID reality — where air travel remains an unpopular way to travel — could boost interest in regional tourism, Jack Morgan with the National Association of Counties. Appalachia is located within 500 miles of about 70 percent of the country’s population.
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
“Appalachian communities are well positioned to capitalize on travelers who may be seeking recreation or that nature escape relatively nearby as opposed to a larger cross country trip or international trip,” he said.
However, Morgan cautioned that diversification is a long, tough process. Many communities are in the beginning stages of mapping their next chapters. The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic comes on top of years of declining tax revenues from the coal industry.
“This could be a significant bump in the road to many communities who, excitingly, are really starting to blossom and gain some momentum,” he said.
That’s especially true for the restaurants, hotels and small businesses that tourists frequent after they come down from the trails.
The Challenges
Ramey, the city manager of Norton, Virginia, said one of his primary concerns during this pandemic has been ensuring small businesses along the town’s brick-lined downtown survive.
“One of the reasons why we really looked towards tourism as part of our economic plan is that we did have some of those resources such as hotels and restaurants and things like that,” he said. “We’ve been very concerned about the economic impact to those businesses and tried to do some things to support them through all of this and so we hopefully will all be ready to move forward at the appropriate time.”
That includes providing small “bridge loans” to businesses. Norton has given out about 50 loans, totaling nearly $250,000. The 60-month loans require no payments or interest for the first six months, Ramey said.
Providing a financial boost for businesses is something the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority is also doing with the help of a $750,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant that will allow the group to recapitalize an existing revolving loan fund.
“So we’re trying to pump some capital back into the tourism community that way,” said Brouse, the group’s executive director.
In southeastern Ohio, nonprofit Rural Action has so far helped distribute about $35,000 in small grants. The program was started via a Facebook fundraiser to help support local businesses.
Dan Vorisek, program coordinator for the resilient communities program at Rural Action, the communities he works with in Ohio are in the early stages of reorienting their economies toward outdoor recreation and tourism. He said there is a contingent of businesses that are struggling, but others are using the pandemic as a chance to reevaluate their own models.
“So, from what I’ve seen, it’s a combination of businesses just trying to make it to the next week, and then other businesses that actually have the opportunity to plan for the future,” he said.
Credit Brittany Patterson / Ohio Valley ReSource
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Ohio Valley ReSource
The Coal River Group has about 30 kayaks to rent to tourists.
The Optimism
In southeastern Ohio, Vorisek investors are still moving forward in developing the local bike trail network and surrounding communities.
“They see the potential,” he said.
That potential could be shaped by a broader urban reckoning. Many rural places haven’t seen the high coronavirus case numbers that cities have, although that may be changing as states continue to reopen. Telework, once a barrier for many companies, has become increasingly acceptable.
That’s how Ramey sees it.
“There could be a flight to places like ours now, and the Appalachian area,” he said. “If you can work from home, you can work from anywhere, and so that anywhere could be Norton, Virginia.”
Back on the Coal River, Bill Currey agrees.
“We’re like a national park that’s not designated,” he said. “Big city people are saying, through the pandemic, ‘I don’t want to live in this downtown where I can’t grow a garden like those people in West Virginia. I don’t want to live downtown and not go to the grocery store when those West Virginians are going out and they’ve got deer meat, they’ve got fish.’ It’s like, we’ve got so much of what the other part of the country doesn’t have.”
But he adds if you aren’t ready to move just yet, you could always start by visiting and spending a day on the river.
If you love West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s The Moth Radio Hour, you’ll love The Moth Mainstage, which is bringing a troupe of storytellers from across the country to the West Virginia Culture Center in Charleston this Thursday, March 5, at 7 p.m.
The theme of the night will be “We The People” and will feature a Mountain State storyteller. W.I. “Bill” Hairston has been a storyteller since 1985 and many of his stories are based on his experiences growing up on the Coal River in rural West Virginia. They embody the rich Appalachian culture and authentic African American culture he was exposed to as a child. Hairston has performed at concerts, festivals, libraries, corporate meetings and schools throughout the region and across the country.
The production will be hosted by Jon Goode, an author, poet, and playwright who hails from Richmond, Va., and currently resides in Atlanta, Ga. He has been a featured performer on HBO’s Def Poetry, TVOne’s Verses & Flow, and BET’s Lyric Café. His stage play Khalas was showcased in the 2013 International Festival of Arts and Ideas. In 2006, Goode’s work with Nick @ Nite earned him an Emmy nomination alongside the Promax Gold for best copyright North America. Goode’s debut collection of poems and short stories, Conduit, was published in 2015; has received to date 47 five-star reviews; spent 12 weeks as the No. 1 title in its category on Amazon.com and is the best-reviewed book of poetry on Amazon.com for 2015-2016. He is the host of The Moth StorySLAM in Atlanta.
Other storytellers include:
Jackie Andrews. She was raised in Western Nebraska in the 1970s. After college, she served as an Army officer and now lives in Columbus, Ohio. She is a glass artist and tutor and spends her days building her home next door to her daughter and grandchildren.
Andrea Collier. She is an award-winning author, journalist and photographer based in Lansing, Mich. She has been married to Darnay Collier for 38 years and is the mother of two adult children. Her favorite title is “GoGo” to her two grandsons.
Muneesh Jain — Originally from Kalamazoo, Mich., Jain has lived in New York City for 12 years. His biggest passions in life are baseball and Broadway. Between the months of April and October, you will most likely find him in one of the 30 MLB ballparks across the country, catching a ballgame, talking to strangers and eating ice cream out of a mini-helmet. During the offseason, he’s probably at a musical or a play. He is the co-host of The Clubhouse Podcast where he and his friend, Anthony Rapp, interview celebrities about why they love baseball. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RoundingThirdMJ. Jain was recently nominated for a 2020 Emmy Award.
Trevor Nourse — He grew up on the Kentucky side of the Tennessee border in a little place called Tuckessee. By day he is busy climbing trees as a forestry technician in Louisville, Ky. By night, he is a ramen noodle connoisseur. During travels to new cities, he loves to hunt down the perfect bowl of pork tonkatsu. And just for kicks, he is also an expert at misplacing his slippery iPhone and frantically dashing around new cities tracking strangers down to retrieve it with the handy dandy Find My Phone app. Nourse says he’s the luckiest man alive.
Tickets are available at themoth.org. For those unfamiliar with The Moth Radio Hour, you can catch it every Saturday on WVPB radio or streaming here at wvpublic.org.
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced an agreement to address dioxin contamination in the Kanawha River by constructing a cap over nine acres of sediment containing the toxic substance.
According to the EPA, the Superfund cleanup in West Virginia’s Putnam and Kanawha counties will focus on a 14-mile (22.53-kilometer) stretch beginning at the Kanawha’s confluence with the Coal River.
The capping is intended to keep concentrations of the known carcinogen contained and protect fish.
The agency says the most significant human health risks are from eating fish.
Pharmacia, formerly Monsanto Co., manufactured an herbicide in Nitro from 1948 to 1969 that was a principal component of the defoliant Agent Orange used by the U.S. military in Vietnam.
Dozens of volunteers floated down a West Virginia river to remove hundreds of discarded tires over the weekend.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports more than 30 volunteers in kayaks, canoes and flat-bottomed boats retrieved at least 650 tires Saturday afternoon from a 9-mile stretch of the Coal River in Boone County.
The effort was spearheaded by Trash Your Kayak, an informal group focused on removing tires and other forms of litter from the river and its tributaries.
The tires were taken to the shore, where workers with state Department of Environmental Protection’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan transported them to a disposal site.
Coal River Group Chairman Bill Currey says follow-up efforts will take place to remove another 600 to 700 tires that still remain in that section of the river.
West Virginia environmental officials are looking for volunteers to clean up Little Coal River.
The Department of Environmental Protection says the Little Coal River cleanup will start Saturday morning in the Julian area. The river there is littered with an estimated 400 tires.
One group will begin cleaning up tires at 10 a.m. along a shallow one-mile stretch between the Route 3 Julian Bridge and Horse Creek/White Road.
Another group will depart on kayaks from Donald Kuhn Juvenile Center and deposit trash and tires in drop-off points. Volunteers should drop off their boats near the Juvenile Center by 9:30 a.m.
It’s recommended to wear old clothes and bring creek-wading shoes, extra clothes, tools to pry out tires and a snack.
