Vulcan (West Virginia)
| Vulcan | |||
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 The railway line in Vulcan, WV |
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| Location in West Virginia | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | West Virginia | ||
| County : | Mingo County | ||
| Coordinates : | 37 ° 33 ′ N , 82 ° 8 ′ W | ||
| Postal code : | 25697 | ||
| Area code : | +1 304 and 681 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 1555899 | ||
Vulcan is a municipality in Mingo County , West Virginia, United States . Located close to the Tug Fork River, the only transport link is a bridge to the neighboring state of Kentucky .
history
At the beginning of the 20th century, coal deposits were discovered in Vulcan and the settlement flourished. When the coal was mined in the 1960s, the village began to decline. Little more than 20 families remained there.
The state of West Virginia had never built an access road to the settlement. The mining company only built a bridge over the river, which was too narrow for cars and trucks and was ready to be demolished in the 1960s. The inhabitants of Vulcans therefore illegally used a gravel road along the railway line, which, however, was owned by the Norfolk and Western Railway . The children of the village often had to crawl under parked coal wagons and then pass the ailing bridge to wait for the school bus on the other side of the river.
The settlement became famous in 1977 for its mayor, John Robinette , seeking help from the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic to replace the bridge that had collapsed two years earlier. The government of West Virginia refused to rebuild the bridge: the traffic was too low and other transport projects in the state were more urgent.
The mayor's request drew a lot of attention. The radio stations reported bomb threats against every bridge that was being built with communist help.
Russian journalist Iona Andronov visited Vulcan on December 17, 1977. An hour after his visit, reporters learned that West Virginia's parliament had approved $ 1.3 million to rebuild the bridge.
Web links
swell
- The West Virginia Town That Applied For Soviet Foreign Aid. In: Appalachian Magazine. February 23, 2014, accessed May 6, 2020 .