Vulcan, West Virginia, Level 3 Ghost Town and Their Link to Russia

www.HistoryInYourOwnBackyard.com [email protected] 812-623-5727 Vulcan, West Virginia is a former coal camp in Mingo County along the banks of the Tug Fork River just 5 miles southeast of the infamous town of Matewan, West Virginia where the 1920 Coal Wars took place. But that’s a story for a different day. The camp of Vulcan is named after the former Vulcan Oil and Mining Company of West Virginia which had a heavy presence in this corner of the state. The company mined coal from the nearby mountains of Kentucky & West Virginia and had “coal towns” throughout the region, including Vulcan which was established in 1910. The town of Vulcan survived on a thread with their only lifeline to the world being a footbridge built by the Vulcan Oil Company that spanned the Tug Fork River over to Pike County, Kentucky. Technically this was the only way in and out of town as the gravel road sandwiched between the railroad tracks and the Tug Fork River was owned by the railroad and not for public access. In the 1950s and 1960s the coal seams in this area were mined to the limit. By 1968 the Vulcan Oil & Coal Company closed and the 200 residents in Vulcan were left to fend for themselves. At one time Vulcan had a train depot, a store, a school, a post office and the Shenandoah bar. But after the coal mine closed, families began leaving until only about 100 residents were left. As the residents left, everything closed, the depot, the store, the school, the post office and the bar. The foot bridge which was maintained by the coal company was expanded by the locals so that smaller vehicles could be driven across like this Jeep you see in the picture. Unfortunately the bridge slowly deteriorated until July 1975 when the bridge collapsed into the river. The Vulcan residents only had one way out, the gravel service road that ran between the railroad and the Tug Fork River up to Freeburn, Kentucky, two miles down river. This was their only option to the outside world. Soon after the collapse, local resident John Robinette designated himself Mayor of the town of Vulcan and began petitioning the county and the state to have a bridge built across the Tug Fork River. For 2 years the county and the state ignored John so he got creative. In September 1977 Mayor Robinette contacted the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C. asking for financial and engineering aid to construct a bridge across the Tug Fork River as the United States was unwilling to lend any assistance. The Soviets took great pleasure in their opportunity to embarrass the United States. On December 17th, 1977, the Soviet embassy in Washington, DC, dispatched a senior journalist to meet Vulcan’s mayor and survey the problem. He was authorized to promise the locals that his government would keep an eye on the situation, and that if their own government did not build them a bridge soon, the Soviets would foot the bill for building one. Word immediately got out about the visiting Russian journalist and within an hour after his arrival in Vulcan, the governor of West Virginia put out a press release that a bridge would be built by the State of West Virginia. Indeed the bridge was constructed and completed in 1980. On July 9th, five years after the collapse of the wooden foot bridge, Mayor John Robinette christened the newly opened American built bridge with 2 bottles of Russian vodka. The only remains of the infamous footbridge is a set of concrete piers covered in Kudzu about 150 feet East of the current bridge on the West Virginia side of the river. The concrete piers on the Kentucky side were washed away in a flood years ago. If you remember crossing over the original Vulcan bridge or have photos of the bridge, please leave a comment below. This picture is circulating in video and print of it being the famous Vulcan bridge. However it is not the bridge in this story. This foot bridge was about 1 miles upriver and stood until about 2010 when it was removed. I’ll have a video about this footbridge at some point in the future. GPS Location: 37º33'07.9"N 82º07'32.3"W Other Ghost Town Videos include: Abandoned Level 2 Ghost Town Discovered in Ohio County, Indiana, Watts Mill, Bear Branch:    • Abandoned Level  2  Ghost  Town  Discovere...   Level 4 Ghost Town, Aberdeen, Indiana:    • Aberdeen,  Indiana,  Level  4  Ghost  Town...   Fort Ritner, Indiana    • Fort  Ritner,  Indiana,  Level  4  Ghost  ...   Hartford, Indiana, Level 4 Ghost Town:    • Hartford,  Indiana,  Level  4  Ghost  Town   The Ghost Town of Weisburg, Indiana:    • The  Ghost  Town  of  Weisburg,  Indiana   The Ghost Town of Bonnell, Indiana:    • The  Ghost  Town  of  Bonnell,  Indiana  w...   The Ghost Town of Mt. Lawn, Indiana:    • The  Ghost  Town  of  Mt   Lawn,  Indiana ...   The Ghost Town of Columbia Park, Ohio:    • 1920s Ghost Town Located West of Cincinnat...