Nuttallburg Headhouse 2021 - Part 1

This first part briefly shows the Nuttallburg Headhouse from above as you approach the site on the Headhouse Trail, New River Gorge. The headhouse was restored by the National Park Service.

In 1870, England-born entrepreneur John Nuttall saw opportunity in the coal rich New River Gorge and began buying land and building infrastructure along the Keeneys Creek drainage. When the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway was completed through the gorge in 1873, the town and mine were ready to produce and ship the high quality "smokeless" coal. Nuttallburg became the second mining town in the gorge to ship the "smokeless" coal after Quinnimont.

Nuttallburg was a bustling mining community by the turn of the last century, continuing to thrive after Nuttall's death in 1897 under the direction of his heirs. The town became the focus of national publicity in the 1920's when, in his effort known as "vertical integration" to gain control of all aspects of production, automobile industrialist Henry Ford leased the town's mines to provide coal for his company steel mills. The Fordson Coal Company made many improvements to the mine and town during the eight year tenure, but Ford's plan for "vertical integration" failed when it became evident he could neither control, nor afford to buy, the railroad that was responsible for transportation of the coal his mines produced. He sold his interests in the Nuttallburg mines in 1928.

The mines of Nuttallburg passed through three owners after Henry Ford, with production limited to primarily local use in later years as the market for New River coal declined. Production ceased in 1958.