Appalachian Community Histories – Erin, McDowell County: From Norfolk & Western Rails to Shabbyroom Hollow
Some Appalachian communities left behind courthouses, churches, schools, newspapers, and rows of company houses that still stand beside the road. Others survive only as names scattered across railroad tables, government maps, mine reports, and the memories of people whose families once lived there.
Erin, in McDowell County, West Virginia, belongs to the second group.
The community developed in the coal country surrounding Roderfield and Premier, along a short Norfolk & Western Railway line known as the Spice Creek Branch. Erin never became one of McDowell County’s largest or best documented coal towns. It did not acquire the national reputation of places such as Welch, Keystone, Gary, or War. Yet the records that remain place Erin within the railroad and mining network that transformed southern West Virginia during the early twentieth century.
Its history is the story of a small settlement located between a railroad junction and a major coal operation. It is also the story of how a community can nearly disappear while its name remains attached to a stream, an old road, a railroad trestle, and a few surviving government records.
Coal and Railroads Transform McDowell County
McDowell County’s industrial development depended on the railroad. Before rail lines penetrated its narrow valleys, the county’s rich coal seams were difficult to mine commercially because there was no economical way to transport large quantities of coal to distant markets.
That changed as the Norfolk & Western Railway expanded through the Pocahontas coalfield. Main lines followed the larger valleys, while shorter branch lines reached into side hollows where coal companies opened mines and constructed tipples, coke ovens, houses, stores, and other facilities.
The pace of development was remarkable. In 1900, McDowell County contained 31 coal companies operating 31 mines. By the end of 1910, the county had 66 companies and 99 mines. Annual coal production increased from approximately 4.6 million tons to more than 13.7 million tons during the same period. The number of mining companies and active mines continued rising until the early 1920s.
Small settlements appeared wherever railroads, coal seams, streams, and buildable land met. Some became carefully planned company towns. Others were loose collections of houses occupied by miners, railroad workers, timbermen, merchants, and their families. Erin appears to have emerged within this larger pattern, although the surviving evidence does not yet establish an exact founding date or identify a single company as its founder.
The Spice Creek Branch
The strongest evidence for Erin’s early history comes from the Norfolk & Western Railway’s Spice Creek Branch.
A modern coal heritage survey prepared from historic records lists the Spice Creek Branch as a Norfolk & Western line constructed in phases during 1902 and 1907. The survey identifies Erin and Premier as the communities associated with the branch and cites railroad historian Alex P. Schust’s research on the McDowell County coalfield.
A period railroad report provides additional detail. In 1909, the Commercial and Financial Chronicle reported that the Spice Creek Branch extended approximately 4.54 miles from Roderfield up Spice Creek to the coal operations of the Premier-Pocahontas Collieries Company. The line had been completed and placed into operation by that time.
Taken together, these sources suggest that the branch developed in stages. Construction dates associated with 1902 and 1907 may represent initial work, extensions, or separate phases of railroad development, while the 1909 report recorded the completed branch as an operating line.
Roderfield served as the branch’s connection with the Norfolk & Western main line. The settlement stood at the junction of the railroad and the Spice Creek corridor, approximately seven miles west-northwest of Welch. Roderfield had appeared in a state gazetteer by 1898 and already possessed railroad and telegraph service. By 1906, its population was estimated at approximately 200 people.
From Roderfield, the branch entered the coal country toward Premier. Erin stood somewhere within that short industrial corridor. Its location placed it between the main railroad connection and the mines that generated much of the branch’s traffic.
Erin Between Roderfield and Premier
Premier became the industrial destination at the upper end of the Spice Creek Branch. State mining records show that the Premier-Pocahontas Collieries Company operated a significant mining complex there.
In 1914, the West Virginia Department of Mines credited the company with producing 331,679 tons of coal. That figure placed Premier-Pocahontas among the more substantial McDowell County producers listed in the report. By 1918, state records identified four numbered Premier mines and reported combined production of approximately 227,000 tons.
The movement of that coal required tracks, sidings, bridges, trestles, locomotives, maintenance crews, and railroad labor. The branch would also have transported mining equipment, construction supplies, company goods, and sometimes passengers or workers traveling between settlements.
Erin’s precise relationship with the Premier-Pocahontas company remains uncertain. No readily accessible primary source reviewed for this article proves that the company founded Erin, owned all its houses, operated a store there, or maintained a formal passenger station carrying the community’s name.
That uncertainty matters. Coalfield communities were not all organized in the same way. Some were wholly controlled by one company. Others developed near company property but included privately owned homes, independent businesses, boardinghouses, churches, and families who worked for several employers. Erin should not automatically be described as a Premier-Pocahontas company town without additional evidence from deeds, tax books, railroad valuation maps, census schedules, or company records.
What can be stated with confidence is that Erin belonged to the landscape served by the Spice Creek Branch and stood near the route connecting Roderfield with the Premier mines.
Life Along a Coalfield Branch Line
Although detailed accounts of daily life in Erin have not yet been located, the larger history of McDowell County provides a picture of the world surrounding the community.
Coal settlements were built within narrow hollows where level land was scarce. Houses often stood between the railroad, the creek, the road, and the rising mountainside. Smoke from locomotives and coal-burning stoves settled into the valleys. Mine whistles regulated the working day, while passing trains connected isolated communities with Welch, Bluefield, and the larger industrial markets beyond the mountains.
Families living near Erin would have heard coal trains moving along the branch and mine machinery working farther up the valley. Some residents probably worked underground, while others maintained the railroad, loaded coal, cut timber, kept stores, taught school, cared for homes, or rented rooms to unmarried laborers.
McDowell County’s mining population included native West Virginians, migrants from neighboring Appalachian states, African American families arriving from the South, and immigrants from Europe. These groups often lived within the same industrial region while attending separate schools, churches, businesses, and social institutions because of segregation and differences in language, ethnicity, religion, or company policy.
The exact population of Erin is difficult to determine because small unincorporated communities were not always counted separately in federal census reports. Residents may have appeared under a nearby post office, an enumeration district, a creek name, or a larger settlement such as Roderfield or Premier. Reconstructing Erin’s population will require locating the appropriate census enumeration districts and following households through property records, marriage licenses, death certificates, newspapers, and school records.
Shabbyroom Branch at Erin
Modern government records preserve another part of Erin’s geography through the name Shabbyroom Branch.
The federal Water Quality Portal contains a monitoring location officially identified as “Shabbyroom Branch at Erin, W.Va.” The station description places the monitoring point above a railroad trestle at the community of Erin and identifies the Davy, West Virginia, topographic map as its geographic reference.
This is an important piece of evidence because it connects three features in one official description: Erin, Shabbyroom Branch, and a railroad trestle.
The record does not establish when the trestle was constructed or whether every surviving structural element belonged to the original Spice Creek Branch. It does, however, confirm that Erin remained a recognized local place name associated with the railroad landscape long after the community’s busiest mining years.
West Virginia highway records preserve similar names near Roderfield. A 2019 secondary-road maintenance document lists a short road identified as “Old Tram Road,” also known as Shabbyroom Branch. The same document includes a nearby Shabby Room Extension.
The name Old Tram Road suggests an earlier transportation or industrial use. Coal companies frequently used tramways and narrow haulage routes to move coal, equipment, timber, or waste. However, the road name alone does not prove that it followed the exact grade of the Norfolk & Western branch. Mine maps, railroad valuation maps, and historic aerial photographs would be needed to establish that connection.
The names Spice Creek and Shabbyroom should also be treated carefully. The railroad was formally identified as the Spice Creek Branch, while the modern monitoring station places Erin on Shabbyroom Branch. The names may refer to different but closely connected parts of the same watershed and transportation corridor. They should not be assumed to describe the same stream without confirmation from historic maps.
The Decline of the Coalfield
The railroad and mining economy that supported communities such as Erin eventually weakened.
McDowell County mining declined sharply during the Great Depression, recovered during the demands of the Second World War, and then entered another period of change as mining companies mechanized their operations. Machines allowed companies to produce coal with fewer workers, reducing employment even during periods when substantial amounts of coal were still being mined.
The county’s coal industry continued consolidating during the second half of the twentieth century. Many long-established mining companies closed, merged, or sold their properties. By the 1980s, several of the firms that had shaped the county’s early industrial communities were gone.
For small places located along branch railroads, the consequences were severe. When mines reduced their workforces or closed, residents left in search of employment. Stores lost customers, schools consolidated, houses were abandoned, and railroad traffic declined. Communities that had once existed because of a particular mine or branch line could disappear rapidly once their industrial purpose ended.
Erin’s decline has not been documented through a single known event. There is no easily accessible record stating the exact year its population began falling or the date the railroad ceased serving the community. Its disappearance appears instead to have been part of the prolonged economic and demographic contraction that affected the McDowell County coalfield.
Recovering Erin’s History
Much of Erin’s story remains buried in records that have not been digitized or indexed by community name.
Norfolk & Western valuation maps could identify the railroad grade, bridges, trestles, sidings, landowners, structures, and property boundaries. Employee timetables and station lists might reveal whether Erin was a named stop, flag station, siding, or operating point. The Norfolk & Western Historical Society and the Norfolk & Western collections at Virginia Tech preserve corporate reports, maps, timetables, drawings, and engineering materials that may contain further references to the Spice Creek Branch.
The West Virginia Mine Map Archives may contain maps of the Premier mines or nearby operations. Such maps could show portals, haul roads, underground workings, tipples, refuse piles, company property, and connections with the railroad.
McDowell County deed books, land books, tax records, and subdivision plats could determine who owned the land at Erin and whether the settlement was connected to a particular coal, railroad, or land company. Census enumeration maps could locate the households that occupied the community, while newspapers such as the Welch Daily News, McDowell Recorder, and McDowell Times may preserve reports of accidents, church gatherings, school activities, deaths, fires, and community events.
Historic editions of the United States Geological Survey’s Davy quadrangle can also be compared through topoView. Changes in railroad lines, mine symbols, roads, streams, and building clusters may provide a visual chronology of Erin’s growth and decline.
These records are especially important because searching only for the name Erin may not be enough. Researchers should also search for Spice Creek, Shabbyroom, Shabby Room, Roderfield, Premier, and the names of nearby coal companies and landowners.
Why Erin’s History Matters
Erin may never have been one of the largest coal camps in McDowell County, but size does not determine historical importance.
The community represents hundreds of small Appalachian settlements that existed between the better-known towns. These places supplied workers, families, homes, churches, schools, and social networks to the coal economy, yet they often received little attention in official histories.
Erin’s surviving record shows how closely settlement followed transportation. A branch railroad connected the Norfolk & Western main line at Roderfield with the coal operations at Premier. Somewhere along that short route, beside the tracks and the mountain streams, a community took shape.
The mines eventually declined. The trains stopped carrying the same volume of coal. Houses disappeared, roads changed, and vegetation reclaimed parts of the industrial landscape. Yet the name Erin remained.
It survived beside Shabbyroom Branch, near an old railroad trestle, in the records of the Spice Creek Branch, and on maps of McDowell County.
That fragmentary survival is what makes Erin worth remembering. Its story is not simply about a vanished settlement. It is about the railroad, coal, labor, migration, environmental change, and industrial decline that shaped the entire southern West Virginia coalfield.
Sources & Further Reading
Aurora Research Associates, LLC. Coal Heritage Survey Update Final Report: McDowell County, West Virginia. Charleston: West Virginia Division of Highways, 2018. https://npshistory.com/publications/nha/national-coal/survey.pdf
DiBello, Joseph, Donald E. Briggs, Michael Creasey, and Alisa McCann. A Coal Mining Heritage Study: Southern West Virginia. Washington, DC: National Park Service, 1993. https://npshistory.com/publications/nha/national-coal/coal-mining-heritage.pdf
Dobson, Cindy, Stacy Sone, and Kim Valente. Coal Heritage Survey Phase I Final Report: Boone, Mingo, Wyoming, McDowell, and Logan Counties. Charleston: West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office, 1991. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/486766
Commercial and Financial Chronicle. Vol. 89, no. 2306. September 4, 1909. New York: William B. Dana Company. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/commercial-financial-chronicle-1339/september-4-1909-497125/fulltext
Norfolk & Western Railway Company. “Pocahontas Division, Spice Creek Branch, Siding Facilities Serving Operation No. 8 of the Premier Pocahontas Collieries Company, Near Premier, West Virginia.” Engineering drawing 11572-A, January 28, 1946, revised July 30, 1951. Norfolk & Western Historical Society, Gillum Archives. https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=213787
Norfolk & Western Historical Society. “Gillum Archives Database.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/
Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives. “Norfolk & Western Railway Company Records, 1855–1996.” Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech. https://aspace.lib.vt.edu/repositories/2/resources/2456
West Virginia Department of Mines. Annual Report of the Department of Mines for the Fiscal Year 1914–1915. Charleston: Department of Mines, 1915. https://archive.org/details/annualreportofde1914west
West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. “West Virginia Mine Map Archives.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://minesafety.wv.gov/historical-statistical-data/west-virginia-mine-map-archives/
Water Quality Portal. “Shabbyroom Branch at Erin, W.Va.” Monitoring station 211WVOWR-BST-078-0001. Accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.waterqualitydata.us/provider/STORET/211WVOWR/211WVOWR-BST-078-0001/
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. West Virginia Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report. Charleston: West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, 2010. https://dep.wv.gov/WWE/Programs/nonptsource/WBP/Documents/2010IR.pdf
West Virginia Division of Highways. McDowell County Secondary Roads Maintenance Initiative. Charleston: West Virginia Department of Transportation, 2019. https://transportation.wv.gov/Documents/SecondaryRoadsMaintenanceInitiative2019SecondHalf/McDowellCounty.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “TopoView: Historical Topographic Map Collection.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/topoview
United States Board on Geographic Names. “Geographic Names Information System.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names
National Archives and Records Administration. “1940 Census Records.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940
Library of Congress. “The McDowell Times, Keystone, West Virginia, 1904–1941.” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092050/
West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. “McDowell County History Sources.” West Virginia State Archives. Accessed July 18, 2026. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/archives/counties/mcdowell.html
West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. “West Virginia Vital Research Records.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/
West Virginia and Regional History Center. “Premier Pocahontas Collieries Company Store.” West Virginia History OnView. West Virginia University Libraries. https://wvhistoryonview.org/catalog/003123
West Virginia Statewide Addressing and Mapping Board. “West Virginia Property Viewer.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://www.mapwv.gov/parcel/
Schust, Alex P. Billion Dollar Coalfield: West Virginia’s McDowell County and the Industrialization of America. Harwood, MD: Two Mule Publishing, 2010. https://search.worldcat.org/title/Billion-dollar-coalfield-%3A-West-Virginia%27s-McDowell-County-and-the-industrialization-of-America/oclc/666823075
Chatman, Jay. McDowell County Coal and Rail. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014. https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/mcdowell-county-coal-and-rail-9781467121927
Archer, William R. McDowell County. Images of America. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005. https://books.apple.com/us/book/mcdowell-county/id469369660
McDowell County Historical Society. The Heritage of McDowell County, West Virginia. War, WV: McDowell County Historical Society, 1995. https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-heritage-of-McDowell-County-West-Virginia/oclc/34260840
Myers, Mark. “Coal Mechanization and Migration from McDowell County, West Virginia, 1932–1970.” Master’s thesis, East Tennessee State University, 2001. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/116/
Schopf, James M., and Jack A. Simon. Chemical Analyses and Physical Properties of Twelve Coal Samples from the Pocahontas Field, Tazewell County, Virginia, and McDowell County, West Virginia. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1528. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1981. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/b1528
Wallace, Joseph J., John J. Dowd, and H. F. Alford. Estimate of Known Recoverable Reserves of Coking Coal in McDowell County, West Virginia. Report of Investigations 4924. Washington, DC: United States Bureau of Mines, 1952. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38590/
Kozar, Mark D., and David P. Brown. Hydrologic Characteristics of Abandoned Coal Mines Used as Sources of Public Water Supply in McDowell County, West Virginia. Charleston: United States Geological Survey, 1992. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/hydrologic-characteristics-abandoned-coal-mines-used-sources-public-water-supply
United States Geological Survey. Maps Showing Coal Resources of the Amonate Quadrangle, Buchanan and Tazewell Counties, Virginia, and McDowell County, West Virginia. Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-1730. Reston, VA: United States Geological Survey, 1985. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/mf1730
McDowell County Commission. “The History of McDowell County, West Virginia.” Accessed July 18, 2026. https://mcdowellcountycommission.com/history/
Author Note: Erin is one of McDowell County’s smallest and least documented coalfield communities, but its surviving railroad and government records deserve preservation. Readers with family photographs, maps, or memories of Erin, Premier, Roderfield, Spice Creek, or Shabbyroom Hollow are encouraged to help expand this history.