Tazewell,Virginia: The Frontier, Coal and Conflict

Tazewell, Virginia is an understudied and underappreciated town in the heart of Appalachia, which still preserves a rich history of frontier heritage. The area is rife with sinkholes, caves and difficult to navigate mountainous terrain. It’s notorious for it’s extra craggy section of the Appalachian mountains, known as the Back of the Dragon, a popular tourist destination for outdoor enthusiasts. For the more superstitious, the mythical dogman is rumored to roam the mountains, weirdly enough. The overall population has diminished in size, considering this region was heavily influenced by the coal mining boom and railroad industry, which are no longer as fruitful in today’s modern climate. Yet, the town still stands despite its inability to keep up quickly with the modern times.

Despite the negative depictions and stereotypes about Appalachians of every demographic, the locals are quite friendly and curious about any visitor to their little town, regardless as to nationality or race. Upon my visit to Tazewell, a few of the locals mentioned that they would like to see more variety and innovation in their town. Quite a few mentioned that they know they are looked down upon and treated as backwards by newcomers with no understanding of the exploitation and history of the region.

There is misrepresentation about these small, predominantly White areas. Contrary to internet misinformation spread through social media apps and websites, these areas are not all sundown towns and were integrated well before the Civil War. Although, the South forced segregation and the KKK exploited already existing rifts between races during Reconstruction, segregation was harder to enforce in the more inaccessible and isolated areas here. It was harder for authorities to tell mountain people what to do and who to associate with and it’s always been that way.

Although slavery was a large contributor to the economic success of the region, many assume plantations were the largest factor in the Appalachian area, when much of this region was fueled by industrial slavery due to the difficulties of maintaining a plantation in mountain terrain, although there are outliers. Many who will never visit these areas tend to assume they know the whole story and they don’t. I can expand upon this in another essay. There is certainly a distrust of outsiders in general, even in regards to myself, but the moment I mentioned my grandparents were from this area, people became curious and wanted to share their stories.

The historic district of Tazewell resides within a small coal mining and railroad town in Southwest Va. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It’s part of the Bluefield, West Virginia and Virginia micropolitan area. The historic town of Tazewell was previously known as Jeffersonville until 1892. Tazewell went through a population increase at the end of the 19th century due to the mining of iron and coal from the nearby Pocahontas Coalfields. Coal was first reported here in 1750 by Dr. Thomas Walker, but it wasn’t until the 19th century that mining was prosperous.

Pocahontas Cemetery was created after an 1884 explosion in the Pocahontas Mine that killed at least 14 miners. Their bodies were recovered from the mine and buried together in what became the town’s first cemetery. Their gravestones bear inscriptions in Italian, Hungarian, and Russian, which displays the immense diversity of European immigrants in Tazewell and the surrounding area. There are commercial buildings along the historic main street that are Romanesque. Prior to the railroad’s appearance in the area, many homes here were originally Greek Revival, but underwent changes in the 1890’s, changing to Queen Anne style.

It is notable that Tazewell does seem to have neglected for a long time, the reality that slavery had much to do with their economy in the 1700’s to the 1800’s. The contributions of freed slaves and their descendants has received very little recognition until recently and there are still efforts being made to rectify this. It’s nearly absent from their historical record. As the polarization within the nation grows it is becoming more difficult for some to acknowledge equally the contributions of the enslaved, freed Black men and women, as well as White indentured servants. That has been a difficult thing to witness as a passionate student of history. African Americans have been there alongside Anglo-Americans and Native Americans for centuries. The history of the enslaved and their descendants have remained through oral tradition and what little has been preserved to honor their ancestors.

For example, the Wilbur Memorial United Methodist Church within Tazewell’s historic district, is the oldest African American church west of the Allegheny Mountains. It was originally a small log cabin. The congregation was founded in 1869 by freed slaves. The church was rebuilt in 1875 and 1900. Much work still needs to be done in order to fully understand the history of Tazewell and to best interpret the lives involved in this town’s history. It was not solely built by White pioneers. All legacies deserve preservation and with careful interpretation can be taught to the public while keeping in mind historical grievances and cross cultural resentments from every angle.

Still, much is recorded about the early European hunters that explored the territory here in the 1700’s. Much can survive through oral histories, but with time many of the frontier tales become inaccurate or convoluted no matter the source. There are likely many stories that will never be accurately told or are completely lost. Conflicts between Indigenous tribes and settlers were common occurrences throughout the frontier of Virginia. During the French and Indian War, (1754 to 1763), European powers encouraged their Indigenous allies to attack frontier settlers throughout the Southwest Virginia area. Much of this was also due to disregard for King George the Third and his Proclamation of 1763, which prohibited British settlements west of the Appalachian mountains, unless permission was given by Natives. Many colonists did not adhere to this rule. This proclamation was voided after the Americans won the Revolution.

Unsurprisingly, attacks on colonists continued well into the American Revolution and afterwards. In 1780, a settler named James Roark went on a hunting excursion due to experiencing a food shortage. He returned to find that his wife and 7 children had been massacred, by a Shawnee war-band, although this wasn’t entirely uncommon for different tribes to commit such atrocities with inter-tribal assistance. This was unexpected due to the harsh winter weather that season. Roark buried his wife and children and then vengefully dedicated the rest of his life to fighting Natives until he was ultimately killed in a battle in Kentucky in 1792. This is only one documented case of many.

It’s important to note that many settlers and tribes did not always know the cultural distinctions between each other and cases of mistaken identity and scapegoating on either side were not uncommon. Contrary to misguided beliefs, Native Americans are still here in the Southwest Virginia region and historically have many different distinctions from the Monacan Indian Nation, the Cherokee, the Shawnee, and members of the Iroquois Confederacy. At the time they were not unaccustomed to each other and were not always on friendly terms. For example, although the Powhatan Confederacy was centered on the east coast of Virginia, they were enemies to the Monacans who lived further inland and were very hostile to each other.

Archaeological sites are also prevalent throughout the area. In particular, Bull Thistle Cave is an archaeological site, nearby Tazewell. It contains human and animal remains dating from 1300 to 1600 AD, during the Late Woodland Period. It’s a burial cave with a vertical shaft drop. It extends to 119 feet in depth and just over 575 feet in length. The knowledge within this cave concerning the age, environment, health, sex, stature and religious rituals of local tribes makes it valuable. The remains of at least 11 individuals have been found, including 8 adults, 2 children and 1 adolescent. A ceramic smoking pipe was discovered inside. The pipe was tempered with crushed mussel shell, a skill introduced into the material culture of the Natives of Southwest Virginia from the Mississippian people of the Tennessee Valley in the Late Woodland Period.

The remains of domestic and wild fauna were found on the cave floor. The talus cone, a pile of rock debris that forms at the base of a steep slope, below the pit entrance has deposits with archaeological remains, which would contribute to studies of environments in the Holocene and the Pleistocene Period. It was surveyed by archaeologists from July of 1985 to August of 1986, according to the National Registry of Historic Places nomination form. It was added to the National Register on September 10th, 1987 and the Virginia Landmark Register on March 17th, 1987. It’s unfortunately privately owned, which explains why it’s inaccessible to the public. A lack of accessibility and risk of vandalism have lessened interest in the site throughout the years. It appears to be understudied and uninterpreted by professionals and the public.