Raleigh, West Virginia: Black Knight Coal Country

The town of Raleigh, West Virginia, was born entirely from one company's ambition. In the early twentieth century the Raleigh Coal and Coke Company opened mines here in central Raleigh County. The company built a self-contained company town, and company officers were flush enough to build the Black Knight Country Club, with a golf course raised on a hill above the rows of worker housing below.

When coal markets collapsed, so did Raleigh. The Raleigh Coal and Coke Company eventually shut its mines and dissolved. The company's most ornate building is still standing.

The Raleigh Powerhouse, built in nineteen oh six of red and yellow brick on big sandstone blocks, sent electricity to the mines, the homes, and the company buildings, and has been called the nerve center of the company and town. The country club's grand opening was May thirty-first, nineteen twenty-nine, with Governor Conley attending. Vice president Ernest Chilson designed the three-story clubhouse, white cinder block with Art Deco touches, and golf architect Fred Findlay laid out a nine-hole course.

Sam Snead is said to have played an exhibition match there. Membership was limited to people prominent in coal. Today the town is a quiet reminder that much of West Virginia was built, and abandoned, on the same Black Knight terms.