Byesville, Ohio

Byesville in Guernsey County was founded in eighteen fifty-six by a man named Jonathan Bye, and the village that took his name became one of the most coal-intensive communities in southeastern Ohio. Byesville sat at the center of Guernsey County's coal country, with many mines in and around the village. That came at a steep human cost, as miners lost their lives underground.

The village incorporated in the early eighteen eighties. When the deep mines played out through the mid-twentieth century, Byesville adjusted to a quieter existence. Today it is a village of about twenty-three hundred people, with the Byesville Scenic Railway operating heritage rail excursions as a nod to the industrial past that made the place.