Kaymoor One Mine

Kaymoor One Mine is a historic coal mine halfway down the wooded wall of New River Gorge and part of one of the gorge’s most intact coal complexes. The mine entrance sits above Kaymoor Bottom’s processing plant, coke ovens, and town remains. You have to hike in; there is no road to the historic sites.

From Kaymoor Top, the Miners Trail drops 900 feet in half a mile on rocky steps and switchbacks. It is strenuous, and the climb back is just as steep. The moderate Kaymoor Trail from Wolf Creek is 2 miles one way to the mine. Reaching the lower plant, ovens, and town site adds 821 wooden steps from the mine. They stop short of the New River, so this is not a river-access route.

A gorge view lies about 0.2 miles down the Miners Trail, before the stairs. For a wider photo of the gorge, stop there on the way down. Fall color can frame the mining remains, while summer foliage can partly hide them. The broader complex preserves the haulage, headhouse, conveyor, tipple, and coke ovens across the steep slope.

Low Moor Coal established Kaymoor in 1900 to use its coal and coke in the company’s iron furnaces. The town was named for John Kay, who built the settlement and became the mine’s first superintendent. Its first shipment left on August 23, 1900: 58,900 pounds of coal. More than 800 people worked there at peak; over 62 years the operation produced 16.9 million tons before closing in 1962.

Kaymoor Top has a small, narrow parking lot and a vault/composting toilet at the trailhead. The Wolf Creek approach has a small parallel-parking area off Fayette Station Road, a narrow, winding road with sharp hairpins and 12-foot clearance; vehicles over 12 feet cannot use it, and RVs and trailers are not recommended. Carry water for the strenuous hike. Kaymoor is a protected historic site: do not remove or deface artifacts.