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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Southwest Virginia » Tazewell County » Pocahontas » Pocahontas Exhibition Mine and Museum

Pocahontas Exhibition Mine and Museum

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1883 established. VA 659, off VA 644
  • Fanhouse (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

From 1883 when the mine began operation until its seam worked out in 1955, it produced forty-four-million tons of coal. The former Fanhouse (c. 1900), constructed to ventilate the mine, has become the visitor entrance to the Pocahontas Exhibition Mine. Lighted interior exhibits demonstrate how coal was cut, including the old hand method of undercutting before coal was blasted down, and how it was loaded into mine cars. Nearby the massive stone Powerhouse and Bathhouse (c. 1908), now a museum of mining, was an essential building in the mining process. Its power production was only slightly more important than its cleansing function for the men who worked in shockingly grimy conditions. The building has a deck-on-hip roof surmounted by a long monitor roof with clerestory lighting.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Centre Street and Water Street
Lathrop House
Old City Hall and Opera House
St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church and Rectory
Pocahontas Cemetery

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Pocahontas Exhibition Mine and Museum", [Pocahontas, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-TZ19.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 491-491.

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