The place where it all started is hopefully headed for a new beginning. The local coalfields opened in Pocahontas with the first car of coal being shipped out the second week of March, 1883.
Since the original mine closed in 1955, the long and winding road to hard times has too often gone through town.
With a little help from you and Uncle Sam, that could finally be changing. Next Saturday, Feb. 13, a town and local area meeting at the Pocahontas High School building starts at 6:30 p.m. with an open invitation to everyone interested in revitalizing Pocahontas to be there and be supportive.
Town officials, led by Mayor Adam Cannoy and the Town Council, are going to present some ideas through a Master Plan designed to help the town secure a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for a major portion of the $1.6 million project.
Management team chair and council member Amy Flick notes that part of the success in securing this grant will be local participation in the meeting.
The plan will share information about participating in the Spearhead Trail System that is being developed in northern Tazewell County in connection with the Hatfield-McCoy ATV Trail, which will be coming to Bramwell this summer. Amy says that the town has a good plan to become a productive partner in this exciting project.
The CDBG, which needs our help to become a reality, will do much to renew and restore the outward appearance of the historic town, which once had as many as 4,000 residents, a couple of weekly newspapers, and a booming economy.
To help renovate and make the town sparkle again, this grant money can be used for streetscape improvements, creation of some new houses, refurbishing some historic business fronts along various streets, and rehabilitating at least a portion of the old Company Store.
With the famed Exhibition Mine and museum already in place, the Opera House fairly close to being ready for use, a football field at the high school facility, a softball field in town, historic churches to display, a first class summer Bluegrass Festival drawing good crowds every fourth Friday in June, the annual Fourth of July and Coal Miners fall celebrations, the Pumpkin Festival on nearby Peel Chestnut Mountain, and a railroad track where the potential for an excursion train perhaps being connected to Bramwell and beyond, Pocahontas could become a tourist mecca in a few years.
The Spearhead Trail System is a potential vital link between the two states and a likely business boon. The chances for some new stores, possibly a motel and perhaps a restaurant or two are very inviting. Recreation is a major component of most communities and this ATV trail, which also is planned to include walking trails, probably horse riding space, etc., does offer possibilities.
In addition, the local government officials are promoting it and the more help they get they more they can give in the future.
The government, like the Lord, is more willing to help those who try to help themselves.
I am certain that the town officials want every available area adult who has an interest in seeing prosperity make a comeback show up at the meeting. That is fine, and it would be a true key to success to have a large number of young people. When these new modifications are put in place, it will be the younger folks who will be counted on to become involved and keep the community rolling along.
Although nobody said so, I can guarantee you that Pocahontas is happy to have its senior citizens but nobody wants the town to become a retirement home. People of all ages like variety, fun things to do and some excitement.
Anyone in the local area knows that improving one place makes the rest of them better. Making Pocahontas better will enhance Tazewell County and southern West Virginia. Many will benefit.
With the potential for renewal now at hand, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the coalfield capital with a grand past to build on that spring board to a truly promising future.
See you at the meeting.
Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.
Columns
February 5, 2010
Pocahontas plans for promising future with tourist attractions
- Columns
-
- Repairing a leaky faucet not a good gift idea for Valentine’s Day
- Tattoos, Madonna, music and more
- Smart and dedicated local teens shine through the doom and gloom
- Loss of festival lamentable
- Super Bowl triumph and coalfield tragedy span 55 years of regional history
- A youthful enthusiasm for snow is abated by the cold reality of reporting
- Store closure comes as a shock to many loyal Kroger shoppers in Bluefield
- Unemployment rate drops to 8.3 percent; but economy still struggling
- Faith grows like a mustard seed when one puts trust in God
- Sports, Mitt’s money, more
- More Columns Headlines
