Welch, WV: What’s Going on Here? How is Coal Town USA Surviving?

hey guys this is real Appalachia with Shane and Melody and today we're coming at you from my cadao County we're back in the Mac that's right we're in Welch West Virginia yes we're going to show you it's been a few years since we've visited this area so show some of the changes that have gone on so yeah I think some of you are going to be really surprised aren't you you will be for sure let's get to it before we melt all right all right what you see before you is the French gratitude train also known as the mercy train you know I spoke French did you no I didn't I'm very impressed very fluent one mlc merci beaucoup they sent 49 of these they're actually the World War One trains they did back to them but they were sent in 1947. so this one came to McDowell County and was abandoned for a long time nobody even took care of it it was rusted down the wood was deteriorated it was in Charleston and back in 1994 I found it removed it up here and it became a remodeling project for some vocational school students and now look at it now I've been brought back to Glory that's really awesome yeah I love it there's not a lot of these left but they sent these trains filled with gifts and so forth and most of the gifts Scott lost in what now but they're still a few in the West Virginia state museum so always a neat story I always love to see that kind of stuff and see the great relations between other countries and yeah yeah how that plays in but that's the male sea train like saying that's the third time I've said that do you need any more no I think I'm good you're good okay let's get on the road then well we decided to take a unique start from the McDonald's parking lot right yes there's a very good reason for that Oh I thought we had to use the bathroom yeah that too but but if you look straight ahead you will see the correctional center Stevens Correctional Center yes yes and that actually plays into Welch's population so in the 2020 census the population of Welch was 3590 in 2021 it went down to 1914 due to the correctional facility being moved out of Sandy limits holy smokes about wild yeah speaking of which we just entered City Limits so that shows you how close it is yes so nothing's really changed on a day-to-day basis but from a perception basis when you hear 3 500 you think more people yeah and then you think oh well really realistically the townspeople are only what 1900 you said yeah yeah that was how many was in the correctional facility it's crazy that they count that in a census anyway I mean I understand it I agree but her they do and I guess that helps a lot of towns that have Correctional Facilities like because a lot of times if you have more population you get more like grant money for things and so forth yeah but again then you know there's certain election things that go into it too but that is true not that that's enough to sway and add another Congressman or nothing but you know because some something's not quite right about it but anyway getting off of that yes I'm anxious to look at what Welch looks like these days because I was here just a few years ago and I did a pretty in-depth historical talk about it don't think we're gonna rehash all that again today so if you're interested in that go look at our old video look on our Channel and find out another Welch one we say um first time we've been here together yeah which is exciting because you're a big fan of The Glass Castle I am yeah yeah I want to do a whole separate separately well and I got I talked about it in my last video SD card was messed up so I had to go back and do an intro and mention it so completely fumbled the bag on that one so which is kind of funny I love the old buildings here and um you said it's changed a lot that's McDowell County Sheriff's Office yeah it's definitely changed a lot and yeah I'm torn as we were driving up here we talked a little bit about that that they've really torn down a lot of the old buildings and so a lot of history went with it but as far as aesthetically pleasing it is much better to look at it does not look nearly as I must have worked gruesome that's pretty dramatic word in it but it looked pretty rough before and it doesn't it looks much better now yeah and it is an old city it's a county seat it is a city and it was incorporated in 1893 so it's got some history oh yeah and we love seeing these old historic buildings yeah we do I don't know if I sound funny I feel like I sound funny because I have like a head cold in the sun in the middle of summer yeah you're a little bit it's just my luck but anyways if I sound funny that's why so there's a Marquee Cinema that's kind of a newer theater and then we'll go up through here yes I love these oh yeah that mcnb bank that's that building oh yeah amazing love it and then to the right up on the hill and we'll stop and take a closer look at that's the courthouse it's got a lot of history with it and we'll get into that and here The Majestic McDowell County Courthouse not only is it beautiful which I don't think you could even disagree no there's ATV so not only is he beautiful but it's also very historic as we'll see in just a minute yes and now because of ATV it has nothing to do with it okay let's get to walking can't figure out for sure if it says 1908 or 1909 I'm going with 1908 what do you think I think it looks like 1908 yeah but anyway the classics great stone work here usually done by Italians it's all the immigrants Italian immigrants the Italians yeah I can't swear to it here but I'll be very surprised if it wasn't a big part of that history we were talking about involves Sid Hatfield smiling said two guns he was born in Kentucky Sid Hatfield worked as a blacksmith in coal miner before he named being named chief of police and matewan which is the Mingo County just the county over he was sympathetic to unionization effort efforts and he joined striking minors on May 19 1920 in a shootout known as the Mate1 Massacre with Baldwin Felts agents he uh his murder in 1921 led to the miners march on Logan in the Battle of Bear Mountain now he was shot on his very steps and he'll tell you a little bit more about that once I get up them make sure I don't fall down here so it was on August 1st 1921 Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers were murdered on the courthouse steps by Baldwin Felts agents there were three men affiliated with Baldwin Foundation were charged but they were acquitted so nobody ever paid the prize for his murder for those men's murders so it was pretty gruesome too they talk about how Hatfield was shot dead in Chambers and chamber's wife ran over and begged him to quit shooting his ad but they put another one in him just for good measure I guess but you grew some thing that happened just right here on these very steps sad tragic event it led to a lot of changes especially for unionization efforts in umwa this courthouse is just absolutely stunning and they should be here long after we're all gone and it was built to last another one of those clock towers I love so much and here's that gorgeous what is now the mcnb bank just love that don't you know it's really good vantage point from up here and it really is yeah you can see the whole upper upper downtown yeah yeah it's really good way to get a look at it from up here to the courthouse yeah well let's keep taking another look more look at this town what do you say yes and to the left there was the courthouse annex yeah you've got a little sound for circuit court judge that's kind of a risky thing somebody gets mad there's the Welch Daily News there's a little bit of sadness attached to that because it finally closed permanently this year oh I hate that yeah I mean it was the paper for McDowell County right and no longer in existence cassanas are Toms unfortunately they're in mortuary and here's the old 76 service station and it's got a troll oh yeah I love that a little fella lived to be 90s he worked out there and I met him and I told you this earlier I blew it I did not take a picture with him or interview him I just don't know I don't know what I was thinking I always thought I had more time you didn't have me with you to tell you what to do exactly so I fun with the bag on that too yeah yeah I blew it now this has been hounded pounded and hounded by flooding I like that old slit sign you see that yeah Schlitz beer yeah that's neat but I came back here and probably right around right around 2000. I can't remember exactly the things 2001 when we had a big fly but look at these murals closer too oh yeah but uh and had a big flood and it was just a man it was a sad condition then was Welch kind of rough back in the days like drinking bars and stuff yeah it was that here's a municipal parking building too it's the first in the country and also where John F Kennedy gave a very famous speech from there believe it or not but yeah it was I mean it was where it was the main Hub it's where everybody came for for entertainment trouble and whatever else you needed yeah and some good bad and ugly but this was the Hub I mean it was only a little step below Bluefield as far as uh you know everybody knew where Welch was they knew we knew about it yeah but again a lot of this has been cleaned up and which is a good thing I love seeing are you going to go back around the bridge because I like to see the high school then I will probably get out some but yeah I think it's neat to see the whole house cool up on the hill yeah hopefully they'll get it from the camera here I believe so if not we'll make a way to get it in there and you can kind of see the castle here what's up Church yeah Mountain what do you say okay very pretty churches well maybe I shouldn't have done that well this car's about had it anyways we might as well take out the tank yeah if all goes well this is its last month anyway so let's go out with a bang literally right ah maybe not literally I don't know that we'd get to a good vantage point that you could see the high school without us getting out yeah bear with us we're going to go up here and show you the residential area how about that yeah that sounds good plan B that sounds good they have some really pretty old houses yeah they do and you can see like a lot of these old Boomtown coal towns and I mean they put a house anywhere you could clear land off they were just desperate for housing yeah I mean you could come up on the mountains and everything it's just amazing to think the Ingenuity that had to go into making these places but and no parking because I'm sure back in the day you know everybody had a vehicle anyways yeah like these big fancy houses yeah it's the time before prominent vehicles or Vehicles were so pronounced I think I'll go up there we'll go back down this way down this way but we'll show more in the town of Welch like I said if you want to hear more of the history you can check out my own video let me put up try if I remember a lot to ask of me I'll put a link to it I'll try to help him remember yeah thank you so you love Glass Castle right I guess we need to debate that one because I mean you have different perspectives on the movie well we're going to do it in a separate video oh yeah so we're setting it up this is a teaser yeah forget what I just said yeah I wanted to go by some of the places that she mentioned in the book well that'll be good instead we're going to do today in this video so you might want to watch about three or four or five videos we'll have from yeah from the swell chair exactly so if you haven't read The Glass Castle then you need to do that Shane hasn't he's just watched the movie yeah but in his world that's as good as it gets oh yeah it's only patience I've got and it might be for you too and that's okay I like to encourage reading but you know apparently this is one term was an old Budweiser plan how cool is that oh and look that was a grocery store it says wholesale groceries that building is huge blue bunny canned fruits ooh you had what is it some kind of heating yeah this is just I love these old signs above it it says metal workers something company Sheet Metal Workers yeah Baxter and Company metal cool yeah hopefully we're not about to get arrested but tell it was a boom too yeah I mean there was industry every which way it's amazing to think that what a powerful Hub this was at one time I mean to think that John Kenneth John F Kennedy would come down here was that important mm-hmm that it would have somebody to snake their way up through here to talk to the good coal miners was yeah but anyhow it's a big Union right well the Democrat Party has always been affiliated with with the Union Yes which is kind of a conundrum now for the umwa because obviously the Democrat Party without getting into a bunch of politics is against coal and all that but they also are pro-union so it's kind of a yeah well now you can see the high school there you go yeah and those beautiful churches right up on the hill yeah beautiful framed in perfectly by the churches yeah that's the old Welsh High School how neat is that yeah no longer in existence they go to Mountain View is that what's called Mountain Dew Mountain there I'm not really sure there's Ridgeview and there's a Mountain View I think there's a mountain view but yeah there's a lot of interesting architecture so forth but at this point it's probably about a good time for us to start stopping and hopping out what do you think let's do it I'm gonna look at the bank I like seeing this entrance oh yeah an old Banker myself so I guess that's one reason I'm fascinated with it plus I had to do business here once so I have a history of my own here so pretty cool I'm going to put a couple of Petey the pink-tailed possum bucks in here for children so if you happen to be in McDowell County you need a book come check them out tell us a little bit more about the story of Hatfield and Chambers being killed on the courthouse steps so as we said before is August 1st 1921 and Sydney Sid Hatfield and his deputy and friend Ed Chambers were at the courthouse they want to answer charges from a shooting that happened at Mohawk which was a mining camp in McDowell County and hasn't been around with their wives by their side they walked up the courthouse steps and they were jumped and shot by Baldwin false Detectives they killed both of them the detectives were retaliating against Hatfield and Chambers their involvement what made one Massacre were seven detectives two bystanders and the mayor cable testerman were killed in that shooting so the murder of said Hatfield led to the miners march on Logan the big event in the history of coal mining and this is the widows of said Hatfield and Ed Chambers and there's a man speaking at the murder trial so after the shooting Charlie Everett Lively George Buster Pence and William Salters were arrested and charged with murdering Hatfield and Chambers their trial took place at the McDowell County criminal court and both Lively and Pence claimed self-defense Salters testified he was just standing by at the courthouse entrance when the shooting started and didn't fire a whip and so jurors acquitted all three of them in nobody was ever held accountable for those murders unfortunately as part of this little Park here the it's right outside the courthouse down the hill a little bit a little bit more about Isaiah Welch who was the land surveyor and civil engineer for which Welch was named he had been a captain in the Confederate Army and he was hired by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss a cartographer to survey the coal and Timber values in southern West Virginia so in 1873 he surveyed what would become the Pocahontas coal fields or should I say the famous Pocahontas schofields but he was impressed by the quality and quantity of coal they thought it might be a couple of generations before the coal could be transported because there were no major Railways or anything coming in here but his findings created a lot of interest in McDowell County he ended up purchasing 164.98 Acres the junction of the tug Fork River and Elkhorn Creek he bought him from John Henry hunt and he divided the land into lots and began selling them to colberts and entrepreneurs he built stores Banks churches schools and homes and near downtown and along the hilltops the new city became a service center the railroad and coal Industries and county seat of McDowell County and so the city of Welch was named in his honor Captain Welch be cool to see a picture of him and there's his final resting place we're gonna look at the old 76 station I noticed when I jumped out there was a little well here's a trolley too but there's a concrete Ed Shepherd so that's the Ed Shepherd I remember who passed away just a couple two three years ago or so he worked here until he's in his 90s working on cars and I mean it's very recent that the roof has been gone that I that I know of kind of sad to see that huh you was like I said it was open for business and four years ago one of those cool old buildings though from the date way back across from the service station is this mural it shows more of the Glory Days of downtown Welch here's and if they do an updated version they'll have to put ATVs in it for sure are popular than cars down here these days here's the other mural just down the road I love these I do they just uh they always add something to the town they do and they cover up some flaws in the buildings you know but I love this one since we don't get a drive that way I figured I'd point the camera back this way and give you a little different odd look as well you can see the Welch Bakery yeah kind of neat isn't it yep yeah there's a backside of some of these buildings too you can't really see them as we're driving so I figured this would be a good time to show some of that stuff DMV DMV and here's the thing that I really love to jump out of me was there's a uh no Street picture I thought you were talking about Panda Garden well not too but a bit of a nod to the Pocahontas coal fields kind of good to see that and here's the municipal parking garage we were talking about parking building and as I said before there's a famous picture of John F Kennedy making a speech from here and I'll certainly share that here for everyone to see it says Coal Town USA welcomes you they don't use this anymore for parking I guess it's structurally questionable the flooding and so forth that's gone on well they do use some of it I should say as you can see but I don't think they go to the upper level I'm not mistaken it's more of those ghost signs up there too in about auto storage I don't know what that would mean well and this is a very another very famous to flat iron grill the store and some prescriptions can't stop here and not get a look at that the flat iron drug store such a neat little building the way it's cornered off like that very tight still in operation as you can see and here is Tyson Towers one of the more famous buildings down through here too [Music] one time it's Taylor Optical but I don't know that that's still in business looks like that might be a thing of the past as well looks in pretty rough shape honestly all right guys we hope you enjoyed this look at Welch West Virginia we've really enjoyed our trip haven't we yeah definitely I think it's really cool that we're staying in basically for JFK took yeah this you know him winning West Virginia was propelled him into presidency really and when the primary so big part of History right here yeah that part yeah definitely so so that's the municipal building right behind us and we literally just steps away from where he was at yeah exactly I love it yes and we hope that you guys love it too if you if you did thumbs up share it with your friends subscribe to our Channel if you haven't already and I guess we'll see you on down the road

Channel: Real Appalachia

Views: 22,050

Keywords: west virginia, welch, mcdowell county, gary west virginia, wv, war west virginia, war wv, coal, coal history, keystone, northfork, kimball, davy, jolo, iaeger, pocahontas, pocahontas va, pocahontas coal, coal mining, coal miner, coal country, coal camp, appalachia, appalachian, appalachian mountains, coal town

Id: jFRN7UNI2pc

Length: 23min 31sec (1411 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 06 2023