Quote: Anyone with doubts about how much fun this tour might be should rest assured. Our expert guide was a comedian, and nothing presented danger. Besides, the folders hardly tell the truth about the depth or temperature of this tour. We did not descend 500 feet into the earth, but only rode straight into the mountain, which rose 180 feet above us. Parents held babies on their laps, and we were the only people in our cart to follow suggestions and bring jackets. (My lightweight leather was too heavy.) Furthermore, drips from the roof may spot, so a cover-up old sweatshirt would be appropriate. If the weather has been dry, so might the roof be. If you still have doubts, check the website: Beckley Mine.

Now for fun! Most folks know that early miners took canaries down with them to warn of methane gas buildup. Charlie, our guide, knew more: men bought canaries from the Company Store, of course, at a cost of 75-cents in an era when that figure amounted to a half-day's salary. Wanting to save, some miners used chickens. Only problem was that chickens can tolerate more methane than humans, so in Charlies’s words, "When humans keeled over, the chicken knew it was time to get out!" Other stories presented workers as "inventive losers," who missed out on millions by neglecting to get patents.

Once he had our attention, Charlie demonstrated by installing different types of roof bolts. The best one utilized a glue made by Dupont, an item everyone wanted to buy at the Company Store! (Anything that held up four feet of stone could be useful at home.) We saw demonstrations with chest augers, scooters, dust-catchers (for lack of a better word), loaders, imaginary explosives, and antique helmet lights--now valuable. Nothing required us to get out of our carts on rails. Only Charlie had to walk on the sometimes wet floor while we watched from our Epcot-style vantage-point, padded seats. As we learned the entire historic process of extracting a seam of coal, we asked questions. Yes, children worked in early mines, mostly to lead mules, blind from being left underground 24 hours a day. Most of what we heard about sociological issues confirmed that the industry’s abuses paralleled those of English coalfields described by D. H. Lawrence.

This tour brought us to the 1930’s. The mine, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, actually operated from 1890-1916 with no name but "the Phillips family mine." Some of the equipment demonstrated would not have been invented yet at the time of this mine’s operation, but was added to extend the historic process to the beginning of the modern era. Typical of low-seam family operations at the turn of the century, this attraction, owned by the city of Beckley since 1953, is an important heritage site. Its location under Beckley’s New River Park is marked with signs from I-77 Exit 44, Harper Road. Tours are conducted April through October.

From journals Mountain Hoppin' with Plenty o' Stoppin'