Published: September 18, 2009 10:40 am      

Miners, families remember ‘good old days’ at Turkey Gap reunion

PRINCETON — When the mine operated by the Turkey Gap Coal & Coke Company was shut down in the mid-1980s, the tiny town of Dott, W.Va., like many mining communities during the end of the coal boom, all but died.

But this week, dozens of former Turkey Gap miners, their families, and several others who grew up, lived or still reside in the town located north of Matoaka proved that a nostalgic love for the “good old days” of that small Mercer County village is still alive and well. On Sept. 14, those one-time residents of the mining community often referred to as Wenonah gathered at Princeton’s Ryan’s Steakhouse for the second annual Turkey Gap mine reunion.

“The Turkey Gap mine was an old mine that ran for years and years and years,” said event organizer Van Wysong, who worked in the mine for more than 17 years. “It had one of the best work forces in the country. I got to know a lot of those fellows, and years after the mines shut down, I thought it would be a good idea to do this to give us all a chance to see each other again. Some of them, I don’t even recognize, it’s been so long.”

Last year, 22 people attended Wysong’s inaugural Turkey Gap reunion. This year, more than twice that many miners, friends, and family members filled one of the restaurant’s private banquet rooms, where they shared photographs, stories and good memories of the days when coal was king in Dott.

“Our daddy worked for 50 years for Turkey Gap; he retired from there,” said Letha Catron, who attended the reunion with her three sisters and a niece, all of whom grew up in Dott. “There were wonderful people up there. It was close-knit, just like a family. If anybody needed help, they all came a running. We didn’t have anyplace to go but to church or to the post office to play ‘Annie Over,’ but it was a great time.”

Back then, added Catron’s niece, Phyllis Monk Sneed, the entire community revolved around the mine founded in the early 1900s by the McQuail family, of Bramwell. Later, the mine was owned by coal companies including the Pocahontas Fuel Company, Crozier Coal & Coke and Consol Coal.

“The company provided a doctor for us, and he was there every day, and they had a store that really carried a large variety of things,” she said. “I grew up there in the ‘50s, and we had everything.”

Those were the luxuries provided by the abundance of coal located underneath Flat Top Mountain, where miners like Laban “Junior” Vaught spent most of their days working for a living.

“I worked at Turkey Gap from 1952 until they shut it down, so that was quite a while,” Vaught said. “I did about everything there was to do there; I worked as an electrician and a mechanic, and I loved it. All at one time I had two brothers, two sons and my father working in there with me. I would still work in the mine now, but I’m 78 years old.”

This year, Vaught brought copies of a black-and-white photograph portraying the Turkey Gap Coal & Coke Company bus as a memento for every miner who attended the reunion last year to take home with them. As he closely examined the familiar sight, Mason Farley spoke of the 36 years he spent under the ground at Turkey Gap.

“I got fired twice, and the union got my job back both times,” he said. “I worked down there 36 years, and I didn’t get any black lung.”

Later, Danny Clark, a 16-year Turkey Gap miner who traveled to the reunion from Tennessee recalled the day the mine was shut down for good.

“People didn’t even know it was going to happen,” he said. “Everyone kind of suspected that something was up, but they had just put in new equipment, and nobody really knew until we came in that Monday and they told us. It shocked everybody; I never dreamed of it. The mine was pretty much everything there; now, there’s a couple of company houses left, and that’s it.”

It was a sad and unexpected end to an era, indeed, but this week, it was the happy sounds of warm reminiscence and shared laughter that lingered long after the Turkey Gap faithful said good-bye once again to their old friends.

“It was a wonderful place back then,” said 92-year-old Ethel Widener Dalton. “I can remember just about everyone up there. We were just like a family, and I really enjoyed this chance to see the people from back there again. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them.”

As for Wysong, he looks forward to gathering with those friends and fellow miners again next year. This time, though, he says he’ll be more prepared.

“I told them I’m going to wear hip boots from now on, because it got awful deep last year with all these coal miners,” he said.

— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.