!!!DANGER!!!
It is illegal in the state of West Virginia and the National Park Service to enter and or explore abandoned coal mines! They are not natural cave systems! They are a network of man made tunnels reaching miles underground, stretching in many different directions. They are of hazards such as blackdamp, (air without breathable oxygen), methane gas, dangerous mine roof conditions and other life threatening hazards. They are extremely dangerous.
Kaymoor
The mine property was purchased in 1873 by Abiel Abbot Low, managing director of the Low Moor Iron Company in Low Moor, Virginia, which was to be the mine's chief client.[6] The property was kept in reserve until 1899, when the Kay Moor mine was opened to supply coal and coke to the company's blast furnaces. In 1925, the mine was sold to the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Coal Company, a subsidiary of the Berwind-White Corporation of Philadelphia.[4]
The town was named for James Kay, a Low Moor Iron Company employee, who was in charge of building the town. Fifty houses were built in 1901, followed by 45 in 1902 and 17 in 1905. A suburb, called New Camp, was built in 1918-1919 with another 19-24 houses, and represents the only extant town site remaining. Kay Moor town's public facilities were spartan, with no churches, saloons, banks, or town hall, only pairs of segregated schools at top and bottom, company stores, a pool hall and a ball field. By 1952, Kaymoor Bottom had been abandoned, and in 1960, most of its structures were destroyed by fire.[4]
The mine was connected to the town by a single-track incline, which lifted workers and equipment up a 1,000-foot (300 m) slope at a 30° incline. Coal was moved along a similar double-track incline, which lowered coal to the processing plant and the coke ovens, with the cars or monitors moving in opposite directions and partially counterbalancing each other. Both inclines operated until 1962. Initial operations included 120 coking ovens, which were increased to 202 ovens during World War I. All of the beehive ovens closed in the 1930s, as they had become obsolete.[4
In 1899 the Lowmoor Iron Company vast amount of in Fayette County, W. Va., along the New River and the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.
The first coal mined by this company was in the Fayette Mine. However, research cannot define if it was the Fayette Station Mine that was actually leased by the Low Moor Coal and Coke company in 1900-1901. This mine was operated until 1902 and was sold. The tonnage record for this mine had been misplaced.
Kay Moor Mine No. 1 was opened in 1900 in the New River Gorge and by 1923 had produced 2,947,112 tons of coal and was known then as one of the best mines in the New River Field.
Kay Moor Mine No. 2 was opened in 1903 replacing the Fayette Mine and by 1923 had produced 562,088 tons of coal.
Operation at Kaymoor began around 1900 by the Low Moor Coal and Coke Company.