Thurmond, West Virginia

Thurmond, West Virginia is one of those places. One of those places that a "normal" person would never go to. But then, I've never been normal.  Located in the New River Gorge, the town is wedged in a narrow valley shared by the river, the town, and the double track mainline. It is coal country, and once was a wild town. All types of vice flourished, and miners spent Saturday nights being relieved of their hard earned pay.

Those days are long gone. In July 1985 when I took this picture, the only business left was the Bankers Hotel (the red brick building nearly hidden by the locomotive) and associated cafe. My buddy and I stayed there, getting front rooms that looked out on the busy rail line, only separated by the one lane width of Main Street. We had come to shoot the NKP 765, pulling an excursion train through the scenic gorge. When the big steamer came through, the engineer put on a show for us, whistling and dirtying the sky with black  smoke. It was easy to imagine how things must have been years back, before diesels, when coal was still king.

Though I haven't been back for 25 years, things are different today. Thurmond has become a destination for recreationalists, folks who come to whitewater raft the New River. Most of the town is now owned by the National Park Service, as part of the new River Gorge National River. The entire town is on the National Register of Historic Places.