The road to Thurmond, West Virginia
Embedded Files
A rushing waterfall in a creek feeding into the New River
The road winds in rhythm with the railroad tracks and the river, the path it travels carved between mountains first by an endless drip of water, and later, by dynamite. The barren hillside reveals a secret in the rocks that summer foliage would conceal: a seam of coal leeching blackness into the surrounding limestone.
John Denver is on the radio, and despite the November chill, the windows are rolled down as I follow the road deeper into New River Gorge National Park. Though the park is well renowned for its rock climbing, white water rafting, fishing, bungee jumping from the bridge, and hiking, the road I travel leads to a far more obscure and unconventional destination: the ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia.
The iconic New River Gorge Bridge rising out of the mist
A coal seam in a West Virgina cliffside
One of my favorite Hemingway quotes (Farewell To Arms, 1929) quite eloquently puts to words the type of beauty I seek to immortalize in my photographs, saying, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills."
Though sunrises and wildflowers often take my breath away, they are not what I choose to train my viewfinder on. The unbroken things of this world tell no stories in crumbling walls, hold no fire in empty hearths, and wholly lack the refinement time and struggle bring. They have survived nothing but birth.
But the staggering tenacity of the precious few who have survived the battering of an angry world have never failed to draw my lens. The cracks spider-webbed throughout their beings are not scars, they are the very thing that saved them. And these cracks, truly beautiful in my eyes, always have a story to tell. This fascination with brokenness is what first drew my attention to photographing abandoned buildings, and when I saw "Thurmond Historical Town" on Google Maps, I knew I had to go.
Thurmond was once the most influential, thriving railroad town along the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Thurmond was established by Captain William D. Thurmond, a Confederate general, in 1873 and incorporated in 1903. The town boomed in the late 1800's when the railroad became a junction and demand increased for workers in the nearby mines. Despite a devastating downtown fire in 1899, the town continued to grow.
The railroad that brought Thurmond into existence was its backbone, running along Main Street and transporting everything from fruit, furniture, and mining equipment to the town. At its peak in the 1920's, more coal passed through Thurmond than Cincinnati, and was the largest banking center and shipping hub for a town of its size worldwide.
How was this vibrant railroad boomtown reduced to the silent ruins it now is today? Thurmond's decline most likely began with the emergence of competitors like the Virginian Railway in 1909, but was exacerbated by subsequent events. Prohibition wiped out many of the prosperous saloons on the south side, a fire in 1922 destroyed much of the towns infrastructure, and the Great Depression drove many local companies out of business, and others out of town. The railroad moved from coal engines to diesel engines in the 1940's, a decision that hammered the final nail into the coffin for the town that once supplied passing trains with coal mined nearby.
Thurmond was now no longer needed by the railroad it had sprung up along, and as the years went by, the population dwindled to 5 individuals. The National Park Service turned the ghost town into a tourist attraction in 1995 when it reopened the Depot as a visitor's center.
The Thurmond Bridge (pictured above) was originally built in 1887 as a rail bridge with an overhanging wagon road. After a tragic collapse of the wooden wagon road in 1913 that sent pedestrians and several horses into the New River below, the bridge was repaired and has not been altered since. As I drove across the historic bridge of questionable structural soundness, it was not hard to imagine a 20 foot plummet into the icy blue waters rushing in the view out my window.
The harrowing bridge crossing was certainly worth it when Thurmond's first historical building came into sight: The Thurmond Train Depot (pictured above). The current Depot was constructed in 1904, after the town's original train station burned down in the 1899 fire. The Depot is one of the few buildings in Thurmond that remains functioning. It serves as an Amtrak passenger stop three times a week.
As I stood admiring the vivid yellow and red hues, the contrast of the colorful depot to the dilapidated ruins in the distance reminded me of Thurmond's near total dependence on the railroad. A sign in the window informs visitors that from the Thurmond Depot, you can ride the Amtrak to New York City. Even as a ghost town, Thurmond is still a busy railroad junction, with 10-24 trains traversing its tracks daily.
Today, only three buildings remain standing on Commercial Row. As I stared up at the surviving edifices on Commercial Row, frozen in a forgotten time, I could almost imagine the miners bustling at the bank while depositing their paychecks, children pondering what candy to buy with their hard earned change at the general store counter, a woman shrieking in the upper floor of the Mankin-Cox building as Dr. Mankin pulled out her infected tooth.
The oppressive silence that surrounded me now was almost a monument to the life that once flourished here, as if the crumbling town was asking me to grieve the absence of the lives and laughter that once echoed on its streets and in its walls.
Unlike a traditional main street bustling with automobiles and passersby, Thurmond's downtown is centered along the railroad. It wasn't until 1921 that the first road was even put in, well after the town reached its economic height.
The Mankin-Cox Building, built in 1904, served as a doctors office for residents, injured miners, and rail workers.
The first floor of the Mankin-Cox Building housed the New River Banking and Trust Company. In this photo, the logo on the window is reflected on the interior.
A faded advertisement on the side of the Mankin-Cox building
The National Bank of Thurmond (pictured below) was completed in 1917, and is one of the three buildings still standing on Commercial Row. At Thurmond's peak, it housed a bank, telegraph office, and apartments. The bank failed in 1931 during the Great Depression. Its failure was one of the significant events that led to Thurmond's abandonment.
Below are photos of the signs adorning the National Bank of Thurmond's windows, the interest rate the same as the day it closed its doors in 1931.
This ornate tilework lies on the threshold of the bank's towering green doors, scattered with fallen leaves and unswept for decades.
Built in 1929, the commissary (pictured below) sold supplies to railroad workers. The post office moved here after the Hotel Thurmond burned in 1963. It was the town’s final business when it closed down in 1994.
Built in 1922 and still owned by the railroad, the coaling tower (pictures below) once stored coal for refueling passing trains. The nearby sanding house (pictured below) helped prevent trains from sliding off wet rails.
Photos and article by Selah Greer
Page updated
Report abuse