Stop # 28: St. Charles Coal Miners Memorial Wall on the Virginia Coal Heritage Trail

While my parents were here on Monday, we toured along the Virginia Coal Heritage Trail, which is not only a trail, but also an official Virginia Scenic Byway.  My Grandpa, Frank Minor, who was pictured in a previous blog entry by the old house at Natural Bridge, was a farmer and a coal miner.  He worked in the coal mines at Stonega (Wise County, Virginia), Benedict, Bonnie Blue, Monarch, (all in Lee County, Virginia) and Glenbrook (in Kentucky, near Keokee, Virginia).  We traveled along the Virginia Coal Heritage Trail on State Route 606 from Keokee to Stone Creek and then on to St. Charles, back to Stone Creek, and then up to the Kentucky state line on Highway 421, all on the Virginia Coal Heritage Trail.

We stopped at the St. Charles Coal Miners Memorial Wall.

I took a few photos around the Town of St. Charles.

We went on up through St. Charles to where the Monarch mine entrance was, and Lone Mountain Processing is still there.  There was a train of coal there, upon our arrival.  

Apparently, it was getting loaded, in process, and it was all very loud, but exciting in its own way.  Dad thoroughly enjoyed the stop at the gate of Lone Mountain Processing!

Dad chatted with the guard and he told us that no mines are running in Lee County, Virginia at this time.  The coal we were watching being loaded at this processing center was coming  into Virginia on a conveyor belt from four mines operating in Kentucky.  Seems like he said the conveyor belt was running at least two miles distance.  

After we chatted with the guard, Dad pointed to a display there at the entrance outside the gate, an old coal cart, the type used back when my Grandpa worked in the coal mines.  

 

After we left St. Charles, we turned right at Stone Creek on U.S. Highway 421 and traveled up to the Kentucky state line in Cawood, heading toward Harlan.  I liked the signs we encountered as we came back into Virginia on Highway 421.

For more information about the Virginia Coal Heritage Trail, go to:
http://virginiacoaltrail.com/
http://www.virginia.org/CoalHeritageTrail/
http://www.trailsrus.com/vacoaltrail/lee.html
http://virginiacoaltrail.com/about