Editing Wheelwright, Kentucky (section)

==History==
[[File:Changing shifts at the mine portal in the afternoon. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright ^1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright... - NARA - 541450.jpg|thumb|left|upright 1.3|The town produced coal for the [[Inland Steel Company]]]] Before the arrival of [[Coal mining#Methods of extraction|coal mining jobs]], many locals lived by farming or logging. The land which would later become Wheelwright was owned by the Hall family. In 1916, the Halls sold their land to the Elk Horn Coal Company. That same year a post office was established with the name Wheelwright, named for the company's president at that time, Jere H. Wheelwright.<ref name=kye>{{cite book |author=Rennick, Robert M. |title=''Kentucky Place Names'' |year=1988 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |location=[[Lexington, Kentucky]] |isbn=0-8131-0179-4 |chapter=Place Names }}</ref> The city was officially incorporated in 1917. Elk Horn leased its mines from the [[Consol Energy|Consolidation Coal]]. In 1930, Consolidation sold the Wheelwright coal camp to [[Inland Steel Company|Inland Steel]]. In 1966, Inland Steel sold the camp to Island Creek Coal. The mine closed in the 1970s.<ref>[http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6w130t4 Inland Steel Company]</ref> After the mine was abandoned, the [[Kentucky Housing Corporation]] purchased the town, rehabilitated the homes, and sold the homes to residents.<ref>Kentucky Housing Corporation, [http://www.kyhousing.org/Pages/Our-History.aspx History], accessed September 29, 2016</ref>
[[File:Harry Fain, coal loader. Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright ^1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky. - NARA - 541452 - cropped and restored.jpg|left|thumb|upright 1.3|Coal loader Harry Fain in Wheelwright, 1946]]
Wheelwright is a [[coal town]]. When the city was founded, the coal company built housing, stores, churches, schools, and medical facilities to provide for the miners' families. Miners employed the coal company would have used these services to provide food and other necessities to their families. At one time, the coal company had at least 2,300 miners on its payroll.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rennick |first=Robert M. |title=Floyd County - Place Names |url=https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/63/ |website=[[Morehead State University]] |date=November 17, 2016 |archive-date=February 16, 2024 |access-date=February 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216144320/https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/63/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Wheelwright was home to one of the [[Pack Horse Library Project|pack horse libraries]] in the 1930s and early 1940s.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13537878/ |title=Packhorse Librarian to Broaden Service |date=12 March 1939 |work=The Courier-Journal |access-date=3 September 2017 |via=Newspapers.com }}</ref>
[[File:Big Creek Missions (Wheelwright Campus).webp|thumb|The Main Building of Big Creek Wheelwright]]
In 2018, Big Creek Missions purchased a building that was a former church, and repurposed it to act as a Christian Mission [[Retreat (spiritual)#Christianity|Retreat]] Center. Since 2018, Big Creek has helped the population of Floyd County with architecture, landscaping, and food banks.