Editing Bluefield, West Virginia (section)

==History==
[[File:American school building standards (1910) (14747411096).jpg|thumb|left|High school in Bluefield, 1910]]
The European-American history of Bluefield began in the 18th century, when the Davidson and Bailey families settled in a rugged and remote part of what is now southern West Virginia.<ref name="ewv">{{cite web|url=https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/562 |title=Bluefield  |author=McGee, C. Stewart |publisher= e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia |date=February 10, 2023 |access-date=April 15, 2023 }}</ref> Others joined them, and they built a small village with a mill, a church, a one-room schoolhouse, and a fort for defending the settlement against invasions by the [[Shawnee]] tribe, which had a village on the banks of the [[Bluestone River]].

In 1882, the descendants of the Davidson and Bailey families sold a portion of their land, when Captain John Fields of the [[Norfolk and Western Railway]] pioneered the area and began building a new railroad through the hills of Bluefield. The city is traditionally thought to be named after the [[chicory]] flowers in the area, which give the fields a purplish blue hue during the summer. Research has shown that this settlement, also known as Higginbotham's Summit in the 1880s, was probably named for the coal fields that were developed in the area of the Bluestone River.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

===Coal rush===
Beneath the land of the Davidsons and Baileys lay the largest and richest deposit of [[bituminous coal]] in the world. The first seam was discovered in nearby [[Pocahontas, Virginia]] in the backyard of Jordan Nelson. President [[Frederick J. Kimball|Frederick Kimball]] of the [[Norfolk and Western Railway]] described this as the "most spectacular find on the continent and indeed perhaps of the entire planet."{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} The coal seam had been mentioned much earlier in [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'', but it was not mined until 1882.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lambie |first=Joseph T. |title=From Mine to Markets: The History of Coal Transportation on the Norfolk and Western Railway |publisher=New York University Press |year=1954 |location=New York, New York |page=33 |asin=B0007EEEVK}}</ref> Around that time, coal mines were developed in the area around [[Bluefield, Virginia|Harman]], Bluefield, [[War, West Virginia|War]], and [[Pocahontas, Virginia|Pocahontas]], which together were known as the Pocahontas Coal Fields. They helped support the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the United States. The development of the coal industry in this area created a boom in the local and national economy and attracted immigrant European workers and migrant [[African Americans]] from the [[Deep South]] to the mountains in search of industrial work.

In the late 19th century, the Norfolk and Western Railway Company selected Bluefield as the site for a repair center and a major division point, which greatly stimulated the town's growth.<ref name="ewv" /> In the one-year period from 1887 to 1888, passenger travel along the railroad increased 317%. As with the extremely accelerated growth of [[San Francisco]] during the [[gold rush]], Bluefield became a city that seemed to spring up "overnight." Growth far outpaced the existing infrastructure. [[Urban sprawl]] and [[Urban decay|blight]] were common complaints in the early days, as workers crowded into aging housing.

The growth and decay of the city depended almost entirely upon Norfolk and Western Railroad. A bustling metropolis, it had a nightlife and a personality that was "a little bit Chicago, a little bit New York, and a whole lot of Pittsburgh"{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}—rugged and with steel and coal embedded in its soul.

The coal boom generated a flood of money in the area. Nearby [[Bramwell, West Virginia|Bramwell]], incorporated in 1888, boasted that it was the "Millionaires' Town" because more millionaires per capita lived there than anywhere in the nation. The city also had more automobiles per capita than any other city in the country. On November 20, 1889, the city of Bluefield was officially incorporated.<ref name="West Virginia Blue Book"/>

Bluefield headquartered the  [[Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency|Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency]] who initially worked train crimes but became famous strike breakers and were prominent figures in the [[Coal Wars]], including the [[Battle of Matewan]].

With a strong [[Black Americans|Black]] community, Bluefield was the site of the 1895 founding of the Bluefield Colored Institute, an [[historically black college]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Heritage |url=https://bluefieldstate.edu/community/heritage |website=Bluefield State College |access-date=January 5, 2021}}</ref> It developed as today's [[Bluefield State University]]. Demographics began to shift with the hiring of its first white President, Dr. Hardway, and  his closing of dormitories after the 1968 bombing.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://jacksonvillefreepress.com/this-school-is-the-whitest-hbcu-in-america/ | title=This School is the Whitest HBCU in America | date=April 18, 2016 }}</ref> It is known as "The Whitest Historically Black College in America".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Whitest Historically Black College In America |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/18/236345546/the-whitest-historically-black-college-in-america |newspaper=NPR.org |access-date=January 5, 2021}}</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Edgewood near Mountain View, Bluefield.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Upper Oakhurst Historic District]] was primarily developed during the 1920s]]
During the 1920s, the twelve-story West Virginian Hotel was built. It has been adapted and in the 21st century is operated as the West Virginia Manor and Retirement Home. In 1924, nearby Graham, Virginia decided to rename itself as [[Bluefield, Virginia|Bluefield]] to try to unite the two towns, which had been feuding since the civil war. Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician [[John Forbes Nash]] was born in Bluefield in 1928. George Marshall Palmer, the well-renowned Purdue University professor of aeronautics and director of the AerospaceSciences Laboratory at Purdue, lead of the invention of the Boeing wind tunnel and a pioneer in the aerodynamic and structural testing of skyscrapers<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/jconline/obituary.aspx?pid=191945140|title = George Marshall Palmer Obituary (1921 - 2019) Journal & Courier|website = [[Legacy.com]]}}</ref> was born in Bluefield in 1921.

The [[Great Depression]] was particularly damaging to Bluefield. With the government nearly bankrupt, after a series of devastating structural fires swept through the downtown area, the city was nearly destroyed. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that coal production revived. The strategic importance of the city was so great that [[Adolf Hitler]] put Bluefield on his reputed list of German air raid targets in the United States. Air raid practice drills were common in the city during this time.

In 1964 Helen Compton opened the now-demolished Shamrock Bar, the oldest gay bar in WV.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Milam |first=Bradley |date=April 2010 |title=Gay West Virginia: Community Formation and the Forging of a Gay Appalachian Identity, 1963-1979 |url=http://clgbthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/NestlePrize2011_Milam_GayWestVirginia.pdf |access-date=February 1, 2025 |website=clgbthistory.org}}</ref>

The [[Interstate Highway System]] was constructed through [[East River Mountain Tunnel|East River Mountain]] on December 20, 1974; for the first time automobile traffic could reach the city without crossing the top of the mountain. The dependence on the railroads waned and restructuring changed the industry. Bluefield lost jobs and population as a result. Its [[Amtrak]] station closed in the 1980s. [[Mercer Mall]], the area's major shopping mall, opened in 1980.