Heritage tourism has proven to be a valuable and major industry for West Virginia and is centered on the preservation of historic traditions, sites, music, stories, and more.  Each year, we recognize a project, site, and organization that is making a significant contribution to the heritage tourism industry in West Virginia.
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Mike Gwinn of Beckley nominated a new coal heritage site that memorializes the twenty-nine miners who lost their lives in a coal dust explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine on August 5th, 2010 in Montcoal, WV.  Coal heritage is an important part of the tourism industry for West Virginia, and the Upper Big Branch Miners Memorial in Whitesville epitomizes the significance of this heritage.  The memorial is unique, also, because it recognizes the actions of first responders and mine rescue teams.

This is the first article in a series about our 2013 Historic Preservation Award Winners.

To a preservationist, it is always exciting to come across a neighborhood during one’s travels and find that many of the unique buildings are historic.  Even better is when they are preserved and restored to their original fineness and being re-used in a new capacity that benefits the community.  In West Virginia, we are lucky to be able to honor a different organization or business for its role in preserving and re-using multiple buildings in one community every year.

This year’s Community Preservation Award winner recognizes the efforts of several organizations collaborating to develop the Beverly Heritage Center.  Mary Kay Bidlack of Beverly submitted this nomination.

The Beverly Heritage Center is a multi-year effort to develop four significant historical buildings into a major heritage tourism attraction for Randolph County.  The Beverly Heritage Center rehabilitated the 1808 Randolph County Courthouse, 1850’s Bushrod Crawford Building (McClellan’s headquarters), 1900 Beverly Bank, and the 1912 Hill store building. A new gallery addition connects the buildings and provides an attractive accessible entrance without modifying the historic facades.  The buildings house permanent and rotating museum exhibits, a gift shop, an archives and resources library, visitor facilities, event and meeting space, offices, and collections care facilities.

A new exhibition at West Virginia University’s Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum explores the lives of miners and their families in the coal towns of Appalachia.

“Outside the Mine: Daily Life in a Coal Company Camp” focuses on four central components of our region’s coal communities—commerce and the company store, religion and faith, domestic work and activities and social time and leisure. The exhibition features historical artifacts and photographs from the days when coal was king.

From the late 19th- to the mid-20th centuries, self-contained communities called “coal camps” sprang up across the Appalachian landscape.

“Coal companies built homes, churches, schools and stores in the region’s remote coalfields to attract miners,” said Danielle Petrak, curator. “Although mining operations sustained these towns’ existence, there was more to life in coal camps than laboring underground.”

“Outside the Mine” illustrates how the spirit of hard work and sense of camaraderie typical among miners impacted the development of a distinct coal camp culture. Often isolated by geography and limited in their means, camp residents relied on coal companies for their basic needs and found creative ways to relax, socialize and entertain themselves. Company-provided amenities, including barber shops and post offices, fulfilled practical purposes but also served as social gathering spots. Many company stores contained saloons or social halls, and churches often sponsored youth socials and picnic dinners. Children created makeshift playgrounds out of mining equipment, while women kept each other company by tackling household chores with friends and relatives.

“Outside the Mine” is on view through July 2014. The Watts Museum is located in Room 125 of the Mineral Resources Building on the Evansdale campus of WVU. The Museum is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 1–4 p.m., and by appointment.

Admission is free, and parking is available at the WVU Coliseum. For more information, contact the museum at (304) 293-4609 or wattsmuseum@mail.wvu.edu.

Housed in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, the Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting the social, cultural and technological history of the coal, oil and natural gas industries of the state of West Virginia through the collection, preservation, research and exhibition of objects relevant to these industries.
See more at:
http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2013/09/12/watts-museum-opens-new-exhibition-outside-the-mine-daily-life-in-a-coal-company-camp#sthash.kuHXY5ni.dpuf