Black and White Photos of West Virginia Coal Mine Life in 1938

West Virginia coal mine life during the 1930s was tough. The Coal companies used the miners to dig the coal, then turned around and rented them company houses and sold goods at the company store. As these photos show, the miners and their families practically worked just to keep alive, while the mine owners made a killing.

Boiling juice of sugarcane into sorghum molasses

Card gambling in center of town

Children of Pauline Clyburn, rehabilitation borrower

Children of riverboat family

Coal miner waiting to go home in friend's truck

Coal miner's shack and some of his family

Family on front porch of houseboat on river

Former coal miner, worked twelve years for Chaplin Coal Company as hand coal loader

Many families live on riverboats

Settin' around

(Photos by Marion Post Wolcott)