Crab Orchard, West Virginia

Before coal, Crab Orchard was a farming hollow. It was named for the many crab apple trees near its original site. The coal era transformed the hollow like it did every other community in Raleigh County, bringing company housing, a store, and rail lines up the creek hollows.

But Crab Orchard's earlier identity persisted. The name itself is descriptive and old, the kind of place name that simply tells you what you would have seen standing here a hundred and fifty years ago. The wild crabs are mostly gone now, but the name remains.