Editing Pocahontas, Virginia (section)

==History==
Coal was known to exist in the western part of Virginia as early as 1750 when explorer [[Thomas Walker (explorer)|Dr. Thomas Walker]] observed coal outcrops on [[Flat Top Mountain (West Virginia)|Flat Top Mountain]] in western Virginia. His findings went largely unnoticed for nearly 125 years. In 1861, Confederate Major [[Jedediah Hotchkiss|Jedediah "Jed." Hotchkiss]] observed the same outcrops while he was a topographical engineer for [[Robert E. Lee|General Robert E. Lee]].  In 1873, he hired Isiah Arnold Welch to survey timber and coal in the Flat Top Mountain area. Welch's survey began at the residence of Jordan Nelson, a local blacksmith. In addition to using the coal from a large outcropping on his property, he sold it to people who came to purchase it by the bushel. Locals feared that actively mining the coal would deplete it. When the mine closed in 1955, after 73 years of continuous production, over 44 million tons had been shipped from the mine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Norfolk and Western Railway Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXpCAQAAIAAJ |title=Norfolk and Western Magazine |date=September 1955 |publisher=Norfolk and Western Railway Company |page=520 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Panic of 1873|depression of 1873]] delayed further development until 1881. Hotchkiss, an advocate of Virginia industrialism, urged [[Frederick J. Kimball]], a partner in the Philadelphia investment firm that established the [[Norfolk and Western Railway|Norfolk and Western Railroad]] (and later the railroad's president) to extend the railroad from the New River Depot near [[Radford, Virginia]] to the coal fields of [[Southwest Virginia]] and [[Southern West Virginia]]. The firm financed both the railroad's extension and the Southwest Virginia Improvement Company.

The railroad extension was established in 1881 by The Southwest Virginia Improvement Company under the direction of Mine Superintendent William Arthur Lathrop and architect Charles W. Bolton.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Anne Carter |date=June 18, 2018 |title=Pocahontas |url=https://sah-archipedia.org/essays/VA-02-0005-0012-0002 |access-date=October 4, 2022 |website=SAH ARCHIPEDIA |publisher=Society of Architectural Historians |language=en}}</ref>  At this time, the railroad line of Norfolk & Western was still about 50 miles away from the town. 200 Hungarian, Swedish and German immigrant workers, recruited from [[Castle Garden, New York]], arrived in January 1882.<ref name=":19">{{Cite book |last=Hibbard, Jr. |first=Walter R. |url=https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/90196/VA_Coal_an_abbridged_History.pdf?sequence=1 |title=VIRGINIA COAL • AN ABRIDGED HISTORY• |publisher=Virginia Center for Coal & Energy Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University |date=April 1990 |editor-last=Clutter |editor-first=Theodore J. |location=Blacksburg, Virginia |pages=26}}</ref> They and native workers from Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia lived in tents set up among the cleared laurel thickets of Powell's Bottom, which became the town's location.

On June 30, 1882, Powell's Bottom officially became Pocahontas when the post office was established with William A. Lathrop its first postmaster.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/538415:1932 |access-date=October 4, 2022 |website=Ancestry.com U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971 |publisher=The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-September 30, 1971; Record Group: Records of the Post Office Department; Record Group Number: 28; Series: M841; Roll Number: 135}}</ref>  The first house, finished in October 1882<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |last=Lathrop |first=Harriet Eliza |date=1937 |title=Harriet Eliza Lathrop Reminisces |url=http://digitalsc.lib.vt.edu/Appalachia/Ms1988-011 |access-date=September 28, 2022 |website=VT Special Collections and University Archives Online |pages=14}}</ref> at 181 W. Water St.,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Anne Carter |date=June 18, 2018 |title=Lathrop House |url=https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-TZ15 |access-date=October 4, 2022 |website=SAH ARCHIPEDIA |publisher=Society of Architectural Historians |language=en}}</ref> is still standing and is a private residence as of October 2022. The railroad arrived in March 1883. The first carload (of coal) was used as fuel for the N&W railroad and shipped on March 12, 1883. The Virginia Legislature granted a charter for the town on January 31, 1884.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Commonwealth of Virginia |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101073363424&view=1up&seq=7 |title=Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia During the Session of 1883-1884 |publisher=R. U. Derr, Superintendent of Public Printing |year=1884 |location=Richmond |pages=82–86}}</ref>

The railroad line constructed to Pocahontas helped start the region's coal boom in the late 19th century. The [[Norfolk and Western Railroad]] (reorganized as the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1896) (now [[Norfolk Southern]]) became nationally prominent during the 1880s primarily due to hauling the coal from the Pocahontas-Flat Top coal region. The Pocahontas large, two-state coal region was named after this town. The town reached its peak of population in 1920 and has declined markedly since 1960.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development gave the town a $1,000,000 grant to help fund their downtown revitalization. In 2012, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Historic Pocahontas to preserve buildings slated for demolition and redevelop them instead. The lawsuit stopped the revitalization project, which was never completed. In 2016, the lawsuit was dismissed, as one of the historic buildings was deemed unsafe after much of it had caved in.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}